Name: Mutton Cutlets and Tomatoes
Ingredients: mutton cutlets; tomatoes; pepper; coarse sea salt; castor sugar; butter; mashed potatoes

Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets and Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Dip the mutton cutlets in a marinade and let them sit for 1-2 hours.
Scald and skin the tomatoes, then place them in a buttered baking dish.
Season the tomatoes with pepper, coarse sea salt, and a pinch of castor sugar.
Cover the tomatoes with buttered paper and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15-20 minutes.
Broil the cutlets quickly over a clear fire.
Prepare mashed potatoes and arrange them in a straight border on a serving dish.
Place the cutlets down the center of the potato border, overlapping them slightly.
Arrange the tomatoes in a row on each side of the cutlets.
Add a frill to the bone of each cutlet and serve immediately.

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.

Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Tomatothe original

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