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Mutton Chops, Plain

Mutton chops seasoned with pepper, salt, shallot, and butter, grilled and served with chopped shallot and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Chops, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the mutton chops with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Heat the grill and lay the chops on it.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil over a clear fire for about ten minutes, turning frequently.

  2. Serve with a little chopped shallot and a pat of butter under each chop.

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. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mutton + shallottop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Are the main meat, cooked quickly over direct heat so the outside browns while the inside stays tender.
Butter
Melts over the hot chops to add richness and moisture at serving.
Chopped shallot
Adds a mild, sharp onion-like aroma and bite to the rich meat.

The step that matters

Turning the chops frequently under the broil. Frequent turning over a clear, hot fire keeps the chops from charring on one side while the other stays raw, and helps the surfaces brown evenly.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter. 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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