Skip to main content
Main

Baked Mutton Chops and Potatoes

A baked dish of mutton loin chops and sliced potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into slices about ¼ inch thick.

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

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

Layer and bake

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

  2. Add enough cold water to prevent burning.

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

  4. While the potatoes are browning, trim the fat from the loin chops and shape them with a skewer.

  5. Once the potatoes are browned, remove the dish from the oven and place the chops on top.

  6. Add more salt and pepper, and additional water if needed.

  7. Return the dish to a cooler part of the oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 45 minutes.

  8. When the chops are browned on top, turn them over to brown the other side.

  9. If the potatoes are drying out, gently pour in hot water at one corner of the dish.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the base layers, and their starch and moisture cook into a tender bed under the chops.
Loin chops
Provide the main meat, which browns on the surface while the lower heat cooks it through.
Salt
Seasons the potato layers and the chops, bringing out their flavour.

The step that matters

Adding water and watching the potatoes. Water keeps the potatoes from scorching in the very hot oven, while too little lets them dry and burn. Adding hot water at the edge avoids cooling the dish. Check the level before returning it to the oven.

“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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes