Name: Mutton
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; coarse sea salt; black pepper; port or claret wine

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

Ingredients

1 leg of mutton
coarse sea salt
black pepper
port or claret wine

Directions

Hang the leg of mutton for about a week or ten days before cooking.
Trim off any strong, musty bits and wipe with salt and pepper.
Roast the leg of mutton until desired doneness.
Serve with mashed turnips and caper sauce.

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).
Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,066 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mutton + winetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together197 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).