Name: Mutton Pudding
Ingredients: large slices of underdone leg of mutton; suet crust; coarse sea salt; black pepper; 1 onion, finely chopped

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut large slices from the upper part of an underdone leg of mutton.
Line a basin with a good suet crust and place the meat inside.

Season and cook

Season well with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and the finely chopped onion.
Cover with the suet crust and boil for two 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 + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,531 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

Mutton: Provides the main meat and savoury flavour that the pudding is built around.
Suet crust: Encloses the meat and steams as it boils, forming a soft, tender wrapper.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the meat as it cooks.