Name: Boiled Mutton
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; salt; butter; 2 dozen capers or pickled nasturtium seeds

Why it works: Butter and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Mutton

Ingredients

1 leg of mutton
salt
butter
2 dozen capers or pickled nasturtium seeds

Directions

Prepare and boil

Tie the leg of mutton in coarse muslin or white mosquito-netting.
Place it in a large pot of boiling salted water.
Cook for 15 minutes per pound.

Finish and serve

Once done, unwrap the mutton and brush it all over with butter.
Serve with a side of drawn butter mixed with capers or pickled nasturtium seeds.

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.

Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,637 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + caperstop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together199 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton: Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently by boiling until tender.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the surface, and forms the drawn butter sauce served alongside.
Capers or pickled nasturtium seeds: Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter and meat.