Name: Macaroni Mutton
Ingredients: 6 slices of mutton; ½ pound of macaroni; sauce of your choice; pepper to taste; salt to taste; 1 tablespoon of vinegar; a little water

Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaroni Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

In a stewpan, combine the mutton, macaroni, sauce, pepper, salt, vinegar, and enough water to cover.
Cover the stewpan with a lid and stew gently for 1 to 1.5 hours.

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.

Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,087 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Mutton + vinegartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together615 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Sauce + vinegartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,844 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 flavor and becomes tender during the long, gentle stew.
Macaroni: Absorbs liquid and sauce as it cooks, becoming soft and filling.
Vinegar: Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich flavor of the stewed meat.

“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.