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Remains of Mutton Chops

Fried mutton chop leftovers served with mashed potatoes and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Remains of Mutton Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the remains of roast mutton chops.

  2. Dust the chops well with pepper and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Grease a frying pan and heat it.

Fry and serve

  1. Add the chops to the hot pan and turn them several times.

  2. If necessary, add a little fat.

  3. Ensure the chops are dry, crisp, and browned.

  4. Serve with good mashed potatoes and tomato 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. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the meat that is fried until dry, crisp, and browned.
Fat for frying
Conducts heat and keeps the chops from sticking while they brown.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the surface of the chops and draws out moisture that helps them crisp.

The step that matters

Ensure the chops are dry, crisp, and browned. Surface moisture must evaporate before browning can occur. Patting the chops dry and turning them in a hot pan lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction instead of steaming.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, tomato, sauce. 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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