Name: Mutton Chops
Ingredients: Rib chops; Tomato sauce; 1 cup broth; Coarse sea salt; Salt pork; Mushrooms; Parsley; 1 teaspoon flour; ½ teaspoon butter

Why it works: Tomato and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,719 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mutton Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

Trim the rib chops and broil them like a porterhouse steak.

Make the sauce

Season the broth with a little coarse sea salt and salt pork.
Strain the broth into a saucepan, then add mushrooms and parsley.
Thicken the sauce with flour rubbed into butter.

Serve

Serve with tomato sauce or a sauce made from broth.

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.

Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,719 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + porktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Rib chops: Form the main cut of meat, cooked by broiling for browning and a rich, meaty flavor.
Flour: Thickens the sauce as it is rubbed into butter and cooked into the broth.
Butter: Adds richness and, blended with flour, helps thicken the sauce smoothly.
Mushrooms: Add earthy flavor and moisture to the sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sauce, pork, mushroom, flour, butter):

Thymefits better
Capersfits better
Garlicfits better
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sauce, pork, mushroom, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.