Name: Scalloped Mutton
Ingredients: cold cooked mutton; coarse sea salt; black pepper; ½ cup fine bread crumbs; boiled macaroni; ½ cup tomato sauce; 1 tablespoon melted butter

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Cut the cold cooked mutton into thin pieces or cubes, removing all bone, fat, and gristle.
Season the fine bread crumbs with coarse sea salt and black pepper, and place them in the bottom of a shallow baking dish.

Assemble and bake

Layer the mutton over the bread crumbs, followed by the boiled macaroni, and then add the tomato sauce.
Pour the melted butter over the remaining fine bread crumbs and spread them on top.
Bake for about 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Bread + buttertop 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).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Cold cooked mutton: Provides the main meat flavor and substance of the dish.
Boiled macaroni: Adds bulk and a soft, starchy body that absorbs the sauce.
Tomato sauce: Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the layers from drying out.
Fine bread crumbs: Forms a crisp, golden topping and a base layer under the meat.
Melted butter: Adds fat that helps the crumb topping brown and taste rich.

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Tomatothe original
Shallotfits about as well
Asparagusfits less well

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

“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.