Name: Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients: Loin chops of mutton; Butter; 1 Egg; Bread crumbs; Onion; Potato (optional); Tomato sauce (optional); Flour (optional); Coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Trim the fat from the loin chops and cut the meat from the bones.
Divide each chop into two pieces.
Beat the egg and coat the chops, then roll them in bread crumbs.
Fry the breaded chops in a little butter until golden brown.
Use the bones and an onion to make gravy.
Thicken the gravy with a cooked potato, tomato sauce, or flour, or serve it plain.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, egg, bread, onion, tomato, sauce):

Capsicumfits about as well
Potatothe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, egg, bread, onion, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.