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Devilled Bones

Seasoned beef bones grilled with pepper, mustard, cayenne, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Devilled Bones

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, mix the black pepper, salt, mustard, cayenne, and butter thoroughly with a knife.

  2. Take the bones, leaving a little meat on them, and spread the mixture over the bones with a knife.

  3. Grill the bones over a clear fire for 10 to 15 minutes until nicely browned.

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.

  1. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Mustard + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melts into the seasoning paste, carrying flavour and helping the coating spread and brown.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, acidic flavour that balances the richness of the beef fat.
Ground black pepper
Contributes pungent aroma and heat that penetrates the meat's surface during grilling.
Cayenne pepper
Adds lingering heat and pungency to the coating.

The step that matters

Grill over a clear fire until nicely browned. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction and caramelisation of the surface sugars and proteins under high, direct heat. A clear fire gives steady heat without the smoke and soot of flaming fat, which would taste bitter and leave the coating burnt before the bones are browned.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, beef):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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