Name: Boiled Mutton
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; water; rice; currant jelly; mustard

Why it works: Rice and mustard work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 599 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Boiled Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the leg of mutton in water until tender.
Reduce the cooking water to create a gravy.
Cook rice separately as a side dish.
Serve the boiled mutton with rice or coarse boiled hominy.
Accompany with currant jelly and a sprinkle of mustard.

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.

Rice + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together599 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,019 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + curranttop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together497 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together393 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mutton + mustardtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton: Is the main protein, which becomes tender and moist through long gentle boiling.
Rice: Serves as a starchy side that absorbs flavour and balances the rich meat.
Currant jelly: Adds sweetness and acidity that cut through the richness of the boiled meat.
Mustard: Adds sharp heat and pungency that contrasts with the mild, fatty meat.