Skip to main content
Main

Savory Mutton Chops

Mutton chops coated in egg, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and breadcrumbs, boiled in paper, served with a sauce of gravy, breadcrumbs, capers, anchovies, nutmeg, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Savory Mutton Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Cut the mutton chops and tenderize them with the edge of a knife.

  2. Beat a few egg yolks and dip the chops in them.

  3. Season the chops with pepper, coarse sea salt, nutmeg, and bread crumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Wrap the chops in buttered paper and boil them.

  2. For the sauce, combine gravy, a piece of butter, bread crumbs, capers, anchovies, nutmeg, and a little vinegar.

  3. Once cooked, remove the paper and serve the chops on a dish with the 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 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

Mutton chops
The main protein; tenderizing with a knife breaks up fibers so the meat eats softer.
Eggs
Egg yolks act as a binder, helping the bread crumbs cling to the chops.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating on the chops and also thicken the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through both the chops and the sauce.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the meat and butter.
Anchovies
Add deep savory, umami flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Wrap the chops in buttered paper and boil them. Boiling in a sealed paper wrap keeps the coating and juices in while the meat cooks. If the water is too vigorous or the wrap leaks, the coating can wash off and the chops can dry out.

Swap the capers

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, pepper, nutmeg, bread, butter, vinegar. 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.

More mutton chops recipes

Broiled 50Fried 30Breaded 19Grilled 14Baked 11Baked with Potatoes 8 See all 85 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes