Name: Shoulder of Mutton Marinade
Ingredients: 1/4 cup vinegar; 4 ounces sliced sweet herbs; small quantity of mace; small quantity of cloves; bacon; Jamaica pepper; rich gravy

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Shoulder of Mutton Marinade

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate and lard

Marinate the shoulder of mutton in vinegar, sweet herbs, mace, and cloves for three days.
Lard the mutton with bacon rolled in Jamaica pepper.

Bake and serve

Bake the mutton with some of the marinade around it.
Serve with a rich 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.

Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,386 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,257 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Adds acidity to the marinade, giving a sharp flavour and helping to soften the surface of the meat.
Sweet herbs: Add aromatic flavour to the marinade that carries into the cooked meat.
Bacon: Adds fat that bastes the lean mutton and keeps it moist as it bakes.
Rich gravy: Adds moisture and savoury richness to the finished meat when served.