Name: Mutton Pudding
Ingredients: cold mutton, chopped; coarse sea salt; pepper; 2 cups mashed potatoes; 1 egg; 1 cup milk; 1 tablespoon prepared flour; butter for greasing

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mutton Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 375°F (190°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Season the chopped mutton and place it in a buttered pudding dish.
Pour the remaining gravy over the mutton.
In a bowl, mix the mashed potatoes, egg, milk, prepared flour, salt, and pepper.
Spread the potato mixture on top of the mutton.
Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 1 hour.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, egg, milk, flour, butter):

Potatothe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Leekfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well

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