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Mutton Cutlets

Mutton cutlets made from seasoned mutton and ham, formed into triangles, fried, and served with a sauce of egg yolk, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and paste

  1. Mix the mutton, ham, garlic paste, pepper, nutmeg, melted butter, and mutton gravy in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture stand in a cool place for 1 hour.

  3. Beat the egg yolk with cold water.

  4. Mix the beaten yolk into the flour and knead to form a firm paste.

  5. Roll out the paste thinly and cut it into 3 squares.

  6. Cut each square into 2 triangles.

  7. Divide the meat mixture into 6 parts.

  8. Place one part in each triangle, fold over, and trim to form cutlets.

  9. Press the edges to seal.

Fry the cutlets

  1. Heat oil in a stewpan.

  2. Fry the cutlets until pale brown, about 12 minutes.

  3. Drain the cutlets on a sieve for 3 minutes.

Make the cold sauce and serve

  1. Pound the hard-boiled egg yolks to powder.

  2. Add the beaten yolk, white pepper, salt, mustard, and salad oil gradually while stirring.

  3. Add tarragon vinegar and regular vinegar drop by drop, stirring continuously.

  4. Mix in the chopped chives.

  5. Serve the hot cutlets around the cold 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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 filling that gives the cutlets their body and flavour.
Dried flour
Forms the firm pastry casing that holds the meat filling while frying.
Mutton gravy
Adds moisture and savoury richness so the filling stays juicy.
Egg yolk
Binds the flour into a workable paste that seals the cutlets.
Hard-boiled eggs
Thicken the cold sauce into a smooth, creamy base.
Salad oil
Adds fat and body to the sauce as it is stirred in.

The step that matters

Sealing the cutlets. If the pastry edges are not pressed firmly closed, the meat can leak out and fall apart in the hot oil. A tight seal keeps the filling juicy and the shape intact while frying.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ham, pepper, nutmeg, butter, egg, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, pepper, nutmeg, butter, egg, flour. 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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