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Cold Mutton

Cold slices of mutton served with separated hard‑boiled egg whites and yolks, parsley, capers, and a mustard‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 624 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cold Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Slice the cold mutton into thin, even slices.

  2. Place a paste-cutter in the center of an oval dish.

  3. Arrange the slices of mutton around the paste-cutter, overlapping them.

Build the garnish

  1. Fill the empty spaces with chopped hard-boiled egg whites and yolks, keeping them separate.

  2. Surround the yolk with a string of chopped egg yolk.

  3. Then surround with a string of chopped egg white.

  4. Finally surround with a string of chopped parsley.

  5. Remove the paste-cutter and place a rose or a few pinks in its place.

  6. Add capers on top of the yolk and around the egg white.

  7. Garnish with radishes around the dish.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix mustard, pepper, salt, and vinegar, beating with a fork.

  2. Add oil gradually while mixing until well combined, then serve with the mutton.

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. Capers + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Radish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Capers + radishtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of mutton
Provides the main body of the salad as the meat base, served cold.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add rich, creamy texture and mild flavour through the separated yolks and whites.
Oil
Forms the emulsion with vinegar and mustard, adding fat and a smooth, rounded texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and meat.
Mustard
Helps emulsify the oil and vinegar and adds a sharp, pungent flavour.

The step that matters

Add oil gradually while mixing. Oil added slowly while beating with the acid and mustard disperses into tiny droplets, forming a stable emulsion. Adding it all at once can cause the dressing to separate.

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, parsley, capers, rose, mustard, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Radishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, parsley, capers, rose, mustard, pepper. 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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