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Mutton Cutlets Stewed in Their Own Gravy

Mutton cutlets are simmered in a saucepan with salt, pepper, flour, and water or broth until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets Stewed in Their Own Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim all fat from the mutton cutlets and dip them in cold water.

  2. Dredge both sides of the cutlets with black pepper and flour.

  3. Rinse a thick iron saucepan with spring water, leaving 3 to 4 tablespoons in it.

Stew

  1. Arrange the cutlets in a single layer in the saucepan over a very gentle fire.

  2. Add a little coarse sea salt when they begin to stew.

  3. Let the cutlets simmer gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.

  4. Turn the cutlets halfway through cooking.

  5. If needed, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of water or gravy to maintain moisture.

Serve

  1. Serve the cutlets with the gravy, skimming off any excess fat.

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

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

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton cutlets
The main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers slowly in its own liquid.
Flour
Dredged on the surface, it helps thicken the gravy as the cutlets stew.
Black pepper
Coated on the surface, it adds aroma and a mild, sharp bite to the cutlets.

The step that matters

Keeping the gentle heat and moisture. A very gentle fire keeps the meat simmering rather than boiling hard, so the connective tissue softens without the meat toughening. Adding water or gravy when needed prevents the liquid from evaporating and the cutlets from drying or scorching.

“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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