Name: Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients: Mutton cutlets; Melted butter or oil; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Egg (optional); Bread crumbs (optional); Mashed boiled potatoes (for serving); Tomato sauce (for serving)

Why it works: Potato and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Trim the mutton cutlets, scraping the bones.
Roll the cutlets in melted butter or oil, then season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Broil the cutlets until cooked through, or egg and bread crumb them and fry instead.
Serve the cutlets around a bed of mashed boiled potatoes, which will absorb the flavors.
Accompany with tomato sauce or any vegetables like peas or string beans.

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.

Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, pepper, egg, bread, tomato, sauce):

Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Potatothe original
Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, pepper, egg, bread, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.