Name: Fillet of Mutton
Ingredients: 1 large leg of mutton; savory force meat; flour; melted butter or rich brown gravy; red currant jelly

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fillet of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Cut a large leg of mutton into 4 to 5 inch thick slices from the large end.
Remove the bone and fill the cavity with savory forcemeat.
Dust the outside with flour.

Roast and serve

Roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2 hours.
Serve with melted butter, rich brown gravy, or red currant jelly.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + red curranttop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together495 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton leg: Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
Savory forcemeat: Fills the cavity left by the bone, adding flavour and moisture to the inside of the meat.
Flour: Dusted on the outside to help form a dry surface that browns during roasting.