Name: Mutton Steaks
Ingredients: loin or neck of mutton; butter; coarse sea salt; pepper

Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mutton Steaks

Ingredients

loin or neck of mutton
butter
coarse sea salt
pepper

Directions

Prepare

Cut mutton steaks from the loin or neck, ensuring the neck bones are short.

Cook

Broil the steaks over a clear fire.
Season with coarse sea salt and pepper when half done.
Turn the steaks often until cooked.

Serve

Transfer to a very hot dish and rub butter on each steak.
Serve immediately while 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.

Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Mutton: Forms the main body of the dish and provides its rich, meaty flavour when broiled.
Butter: Added at the end to melt over the hot steaks, adding richness and moisture.

“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.