Name: Saddle of Mutton
Ingredients: Saddle of mutton; Salt; Pepper; Seville orange or lemon; Butter

Why it works: Pepper and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,402 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Saddle of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Carve

Cut the saddle of mutton into long, thin slices from the tail to the end, starting close to the backbone.
Slice fat from the saddle to loosen the meat from the bone.
Cut crosswise to serve slices with both fat and lean meat.

Season and serve

Divide a Seville orange or lemon in half, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and squeeze the juice over the meat.
Place a little cold or melted butter between the two halves of the orange or lemon before serving.

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.

Pepper + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,402 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Orange + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Saddle of mutton: Is the main meat, carved into slices that combine fat and lean portions.
Seville orange or lemon: Adds acidity and bright aroma that cut through the richness of the mutton fat.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky fat to the meat when placed against the citrus.