Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Savory Mutton Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the mutton chops and tenderize them with the edge of a knife.
Beat a few egg yolks and dip the chops in them.
Season the chops with pepper, coarse sea salt, nutmeg, and bread crumbs.
Wrap the chops in buttered paper and boil them.
For the sauce, combine gravy, a piece of butter, bread crumbs, capers, anchovies, nutmeg, and a little vinegar.
Once cooked, remove the paper and serve the chops with the sauce.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + caperstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together211 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,088 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, pepper, nutmeg, bread, butter, vinegar):
- Parsleyfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, pepper, nutmeg, bread, butter, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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