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Fried Mutton Chops

Fried mutton chops coated in egg, flour, and breadcrumbs, served with baked tomatoes, chip potatoes, and a tomato gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Mutton Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Cut the mutton chops neatly.

  2. Break the long bones.

  3. Draw the bones towards the back and pin them with a skewer.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the chops in beaten egg or cold flour and water paste.

  2. Sprinkle with browned breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry slowly in very hot fat until well done throughout.

  4. Drain the chops.

Serve with gravy

  1. Place them on a dish with baked tomatoes and chip potatoes.

  2. Pour off the fat from the tin.

  3. Add flour, coarse sea salt, water, and the liquor from the tomatoes to make gravy.

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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mutton + tomatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Flour + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Mutton chops
The main protein; frying slowly until well done cooks it fully through.
Beaten egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating to the chops so it adheres during frying.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into the gravy.
Liquor from baked tomatoes
Adds moisture and acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Fry slowly in very hot fat until well done throughout. Very hot fat browns and crisps the breadcrumb coating quickly, while the chop must stay in the fat long enough for heat to reach the centre. Too little time leaves the meat underdone inside; too much heat alone may scorch the coating before the interior cooks.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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