Name: To Make a Mutton Pie Like Venison
Ingredients: mutton; port wine; pepper; coarse sea salt; flour; onion (optional); egg (for glazing); puff pastry

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Make a Mutton Pie Like Venison

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Steep the mutton in port wine.
Cut the mutton into thin steaks and flatten them with a rolling pin.
Dredge the steaks with pepper, coarse sea salt, and a little flour.
Roll up the steaks and fill the dish with them.
Optionally, mince a small quantity of onion and sprinkle it over the mutton.
Pour in a sauce and cover the pie with pastry.
Roll out the puff pastry about ½ inch thick to fit the dish.
Glaze the pastry with egg and cut a smaller piece for the top.
Decorate the top with designs as desired.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

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 + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together344 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together32,460 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, port wine, pepper, flour, egg):

Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, port wine, pepper, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.