Name: Mutton Cutlets a L'angelique
Ingredients: 6 mutton cutlets; ½ lb mushrooms; 1 small onion; 2 tablespoons bread crumbs; ½ pint brown mushroom sauce; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; 1 egg (for brushing)

Why it works: Mushroom and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets a L'angelique

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.

Prepare

Chop the mushrooms and onion, then mix with bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.
Spread the mixture on one side of the cutlets.
Brush the cutlets with beaten egg and sprinkle with additional bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 15 minutes.
Serve on a platter, garnish with potato puree, and pour the mushroom sauce around.

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.

Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets: Provide the main meat base that the stuffing is spread over and baked.
Mushrooms: Add moisture and savory flavor to the stuffing as they cook.
Bread crumbs: Absorb juices and form a crisp, golden coating on the cutlets.
Egg: Binds the crust so the crumbs stick and help it brown.

The step that matters

Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 15 minutes. Mutton cutlets cook quickly, so the timing matters. Too long dries the meat, while too short leaves the crumb coating pale and the meat underdone.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

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

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

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Mutton Cutlets a L'angelique