Why it works: Flour and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,024 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the meat
Boil the shoulder of mutton for about 1 hour or until tender.
Wrap the meat
Wring a cloth out of scalding water.
Dredge the cloth thickly with flour.
Wrap the meat tightly in the cloth.
Cook and serve
Place the wrapped meat in a large kettle of boiling water and add the salt.
Transfer the meat, cloth and all, to a pan.
Pour cold water over it to cover.
Let it sit for a few minutes.
Remove the cloth and serve immediately.
Serve with a smooth butter sauce and capers on the side.
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.
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Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,024 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together678 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Tough connective tissue slowly breaks down into gelatin during simmering, making the meat tender and juicy.
- Flour
- Forms a floury coating on the cloth that helps hold the wrapped meat together while it cooks.
The step that matters
Boil until tender. Shoulder is a tough cut rich in connective tissue. Long, gentle boiling converts that collagen to gelatin, so the meat becomes tender. Stopping early leaves it chewy.
“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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