Name: Chops As Beef Steaks
Ingredients: thick leg of mutton; 1 shallot; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Shallot and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Chops As Beef Steaks

Ingredients

thick leg of mutton
1 shallot
coarse sea salt
black pepper

Directions

Prepare

Cut thick steaks from a leg of mutton.
Rub each steak with a shallot.

Cook and serve

Broil the steaks over a hot fire.
Rub your serving dish with a shallot.
Season the steaks with salt and pepper when on the dish.
Serve 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.

Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + shallottop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together407 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Thick leg of mutton: Forms the main body of the dish, cut into steaks that cook as the centrepiece.
Shallot: Adds a mild aromatic flavour when rubbed onto the steaks and serving dish.