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Mutton Cutlets a LA Duchesse

Mutton cutlets served with a glaze and a white sauce mixture, topped with breadcrumbs and butter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets a LA Duchesse

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Stew and glaze

  1. Stew the mutton cutlets in stock with a bouquet of herbs until tender.

  2. Remove the cutlets from the stew.

  3. Skim the stock.

  4. Strain the stock.

  5. Reduce the liquid to a glaze in a small saucepan.

  6. Dip each cutlet in the glaze and set aside.

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, combine the thick white sauce and egg yolks, stirring until just below boiling to avoid curdling.

  2. Mix the parsley, onions, mushrooms, salt, and pepper into the sauce.

  3. Roll each cutlet in the mixture, adding cream if needed for adherence.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cutlets in a fire-proof dish.

  2. Cover the cutlets with bread crumbs and bits of butter.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  4. Serve with brown Soubise sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Mutton cutlets
Main protein, which becomes tender when stewed slowly in stock.
Thick white sauce
Creamy base that binds the filling and keeps the cutlets moist.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce so the filling holds together when set.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the filling.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savoury flavour to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp layer that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce with egg yolks. Egg yolk proteins set and scramble when overheated, so the sauce must stay just below boiling. Gentle heat keeps it smooth and thick instead of grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sauce, egg, parsley, mushroom, pepper, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sauce, egg, parsley, mushroom, pepper, bread. 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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