Name: Neck of Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients: neck of mutton cutlets; coarse sea salt; black pepper; flour

Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Neck of Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

neck of mutton cutlets
coarse sea salt
black pepper
flour

Directions

Trim the neck of mutton cutlets on a clean surface.
Flatten the cutlets with a meat mallet.
Arrange the cutlets on a large flat dish.
Dust the cutlets with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Lightly dredge the cutlets with flour.
Store the cutlets in a gauze safe until ready to cook.

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.

Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mutton + flourtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,695 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).