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Baked Mutton Chops and Potatoes

A simple oven-baked dish of mutton chops and 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

1 chop per person
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. Peel and slice the potatoes into pieces the thickness of a penny.

  2. Wash the sliced potatoes in 2 to 3 waters to cleanse them.

  3. Trim excess fat from the loin chops and shape them with a skewer.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Add enough cold water to prevent burning and place the dish in a 400°F (200°C) oven on the top shelf.

  3. Once the potatoes are browned, place the chops on top, adding more salt, pepper, and water if needed.

  4. Move the dish to a cooler part of the oven and cook for about 45 minutes.

  5. Turn the chops to brown the other side, adding hot water if the potatoes get too dry.

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 base layer, absorbing seasoning and steaming in the dish while the chops cook above.
Loin mutton chops
Provide the main meat, browning on the outside while staying juicy inside.

The step that matters

Adding water before the oven. Enough cold water in the dish keeps the potatoes from scorching at high heat, and hot water added later keeps them from drying out before the chops are done.

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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