Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Take the best end of a neck of mutton and saw about four inches off the end of the upper rib-bones.
Remove the chine bone and fat, then cut seven cutlets about half an inch thick, ensuring each has a bone.
Flatten the cutlets with a chopper moistened with water to prevent sticking.
Remove gristle from the lean and pare away meat and skin from the inside of the bone for shape.
Season and cook
Sprinkle cutlets with two pinches of salt and one small pinch of pepper, then lightly oil them.
Shape the cutlets with the side of a knife and place them on a gridiron over a brisk fire.
Cook for four minutes on one side and three minutes on the other.
Serve in a circle or egg and bread-crumb them and fry in hot fat at 385°F (196°C).
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Neck of mutton
- Provides the meat for the cutlets, with the bone giving each cutlet its shape and structure.
- Oil
- Coats the cutlet surfaces so they brown evenly and do not stick to the gridiron.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the meat and draws out surface moisture, helping browning.
The step that matters
Cook for four minutes on one side and three minutes on the other. Timing over a brisk fire must brown the outside before the thin cutlet overcooks inside. Watching the colour and turning once keeps the centre juicy and the surface evenly browned.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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