Name: Scalloped Mutton
Ingredients: 2 cups tomato sauce or canned tomato pulp; 1 cup cracker crumbs; 2 tablespoons melted fat; 1 cup cooked macaroni; Salt and pepper to taste; 2 cups mutton, cut in cubes

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 cups tomato sauce or canned tomato pulp
1 cup cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons melted fat
1 cup cooked macaroni
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups mutton, cut in cubes

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble and bake

In a baking dish, arrange layers of macaroni, mutton, and tomato sauce.
Sprinkle each layer with salt and pepper.
Mix the cracker crumbs with the melted fat and cover the top with this mixture.
Bake until the crumbs are brown.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + muttontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together452 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton: Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the dish.
Tomato sauce: Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the layers juicy during baking.
Cracker crumbs: Form a crisp, browned topping when baked with melted fat.
Melted fat: Coats the crumbs so they brown evenly and stay crisp.
Cooked macaroni: Adds starchy body that soaks up sauce and juices between the layers.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumbs are brown. Browning depends on heat and fat coating the crumbs. Stopping too early leaves a pale, soft topping, while overbaking can dry the layers beneath.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mutton):

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Tomatothe original
Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mutton. 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.

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Scalloped Mutton