Name: Mutton Chops
Ingredients: 4 mutton chops, ¾ inch thick; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 1 mealy potato, for serving

Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Chops

Ingredients

4 mutton chops, ¾ inch thick
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 mealy potato, for serving

Directions

Prepare

Preheat the grill or broiler.

Cook and serve

Broil the mutton chops over a clear fire for 10 minutes, turning them four times.
Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper.
Serve on a hot plate with a mealy potato.
Enjoy one chop at a time.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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 + potatotop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together293 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops: Meat that is the main component, cooked directly over heat until browned and tender.
Mealy potato: Served alongside the chops as a starchy side dish.