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Baked Mutton Chops and Potatoes

Baked mutton chops served with sliced potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Mutton Chops and Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash, peel, and slice the potatoes into ¼-inch thick slices.

  2. Rinse the sliced potatoes in cold water to cleanse them.

  3. Trim excess fat from the mutton chops.

  4. Shape the chops with a skewer.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the potatoes in a baking dish, sprinkling salt and pepper between layers.

  2. Add enough cold water to prevent burning.

  3. Place the dish in a 400°F (200°C) oven on the top shelf.

  4. Once the potatoes are browned, place the chops on top.

  5. Add more salt, pepper, and water if needed.

  6. Move the dish to a cooler part of the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.

  7. Turn the chops to brown the other side.

  8. Add hot water if the potatoes dry out.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Potato + muttontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and, as they cook, absorb the meat juices and brown on the surface.
Loin mutton chops
Provide the main protein; their fat and juices baste the potatoes and brown on both sides.

The step that matters

Adding water to the potatoes. Cold water added at the start keeps the potatoes from scorching on the hot base, and hot water added later replaces moisture lost to evaporation. Adding cold water late would cool the dish and slow cooking.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mutton):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mutton. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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