Name: Mutton Stew
Ingredients: inferior parts of mutton (like neck); pork; onion; 1 tablespoon vinegar

Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Stew

Ingredients

inferior parts of mutton (like neck)
pork
onion
1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions

Clean the mutton parts well.
Simmer with pork and onion for 1½ hours.
Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to the gravy.

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.

Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,239 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Pork + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,563 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,531 recipes

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