Name: Loin of Mutton En Papillote
Ingredients: 1 loin of mutton; ½ cup salad oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 2 ounces onion, finely sliced; 2 ounces carrot, finely sliced; whole peppers to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; chopped parsley to taste; 1 teaspoon powdered dried sweet herbs

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Loin of Mutton En Papillote

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and marinate

Trim the loin of mutton nicely.
Marinate the loin in a mixture of salad oil, vinegar, onion, carrot, whole peppers, salt, chopped parsley, and dried sweet herbs from morning until roasting time. Turn the joint several times during the day and baste it often.

Roast and serve

Pack the marinated joint with its vegetables in well-oiled paper and tie it securely. Roast carefully, basting with the salad oil and vinegar.
When nearly done, remove the paper, brush off the vegetables, baste with melted butter, and serve when nicely browned with other independently cooked vegetables and an appropriate sauce.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton loin: Forms the main cut of meat, whose texture is tenderised by the long marinade.
Salad oil: Carries moisture and flavour into the meat and keeps the surface from drying in the oven.
Vinegar: Adds acidity to the marinade, which helps tenderise the surface of the meat.
Onion: Contributes aromatic flavour that infuses the meat during the marinade.
Carrot: Adds subtle sweetness and aroma as it flavours the meat during marinating.

The step that matters

Basting during roasting. Basting with the oil and vinegar keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly. Without it the outer layer can dry out and scorch before the centre is cooked through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, vinegar, carrot, pepper, parsley):

Capsicumfits better
Turnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, vinegar, carrot, pepper, parsley. 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.

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Carrot Soup134 recipes

Haricot Mutton59 recipes

Mutton Soup56 recipes

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Loin of Mutton En Papillote