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Scalloped Mutton

A baked dish of sliced mutton, macaroni, gravy, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove the fat and skin from the cold roast mutton.

  2. Cut the meat into small thin slices and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a shallow dish and layer with bread crumbs, then meat, then cold boiled macaroni, and finally the gravy.

  2. Cover the top with a layer of crumbs moistened in melted butter.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes or until the crumbs are light brown.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Cold roast mutton
Provides the main meat, which is already cooked and needs only heating through and browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden top and base layer that help hold the dish together.
Cold boiled macaroni
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy body between the meat layers.
Gravy from the roast
Adds moisture and savory flavor so the layers do not dry out in the oven.
Melted butter
Moistens the crumbs and promotes even browning on the top layer.

The step that matters

Baking until the crumbs are light brown. The meat and macaroni are already cooked, so the bake mainly warms the dish and browns the crumbs. Too short a bake leaves the centre cool, while too long dries the meat and scorches the crumbs.

“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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