Name: Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients: Mutton cutlets; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Chopped or dried parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Mutton cutlets
Pepper
Coarse sea salt
Chopped or dried parsley

Directions

Sprinkle the cutlets with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Place them in a dry chafing dish over high heat.
Cook for 7 to 10 minutes, turning several times.
Sprinkle with chopped or dried parsley 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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + parsleytop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,915 recipes

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