Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
To Dress Mutton Rumps and Kidneys
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mutton
Stew the mutton rumps in good mutton gravy for 30 minutes.
Remove the rumps and let them cool.
Strain the gravy to remove fat.
Add boiled rice, onion with cloves, and mace to the gravy; boil until the rice thickens.
Coat and cook
Wash the rumps with beaten egg yolks.
Coat the rumps with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, parsley, thyme, and lemon peel.
Fry the rumps in butter until golden brown.
Lard the kidneys.
Roast the kidneys in a Dutch oven.
Drain the grease from the fried rumps before serving.
Serve
Warm the rice in the pan.
Arrange the rumps around the rice on a dish, placing the kidneys in between.
Garnish with halved hard boiled eggs or assorted pickles.
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.
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton rumps
- Become tender from slow stewing, then develop a crisp golden crust when fried.
- Egg yolks
- Act as a binding wash that helps the bread crumb coating adhere to the rumps.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating when the rumps are fried in butter.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and browns the coating, adding richness.
- Boiled rice
- Thickens the strained gravy as it boils, giving it body.
The step that matters
Drain the grease from the fried rumps before serving. Fried coatings hold melted fat that can make the dish greasy and heavy. Draining lets the crust stay crisp and the flavour stay clean.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, rice, onion, clove, egg, bread, pepper):
- Turmericfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, onion, clove, egg, bread, pepper. 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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