Name: Loin of Mutton
Ingredients: 1 loin of mutton; ½ Seville orange; pepper; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Orange and pepper 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 ↓

Loin of Mutton

Ingredients

1 loin of mutton
½ Seville orange
pepper
coarse sea salt

Directions

Begin at the narrow end and remove the chops.
Cut through the joints to obtain slices of meat between the bones.
Squeeze the juice of half a Seville orange over the meat.
Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Cut along the designated lines to separate the ribs from the gristly part.

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.

Orange + peppertop 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 + orangetop 36% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together75 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).