Name: Mutton Diet
Ingredients: 6 oz bread; 1 lb boiled mutton (excluding bone); 4 oz bread; 1 egg; 1 pint new milk; 1 pint porter; 4 oz wine; fresh vegetables as ordered

Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Mutton Diet

Ingredients

Directions

For breakfast, serve 6 oz of bread and 1 pint of tea.
For dinner, serve 6 oz of bread and 1 lb of boiled mutton, excluding the bone.
For supper, serve 4 oz of bread and ½ pint of tea.
Extras include 1 egg, 1 pint of new milk, 1 pint of porter, or up to 4 oz of wine, along with fresh vegetables as ordered.

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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + muttontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,116 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).