Name: Corned Mutton
Ingredients: 50 pounds of mutton; 2 pounds of coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 2 pounds of common salt; 2 pounds of brown sugar; 3 ounces of black pepper; 3 ounces of allspice; 1 ounce of cloves; 1 ounce of mace

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Corned Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Pound the black pepper, allspice, cloves, and mace together.
Mix the pounded spices with the coarse sea salt, common salt, and brown sugar thoroughly.
Dry the mixture in a warm place.
Rub the mixture into the mutton while it is hot.

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.

Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,189 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, pepper, allspice, clove):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, pepper, allspice, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.