Name: Mutton Cutlets, Plain
Ingredients: 1 neck of mutton; coarse sea salt; pepper; clarified butter

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 ↓

Mutton Cutlets, Plain

Ingredients

1 neck of mutton
coarse sea salt
pepper
clarified butter

Directions

Choose a neck of mutton that has been killed for at least four days.
Saw off the scrag end and trim the rib-bones to leave cutlet-bones about 3.5 inches long.
Cut the neck into cutlets, detaching meat from the upper part of each bone about ¾ inch.
Dip the cutlets in water, flatten with a rolling pin, and trim away sinewy parts and excess fat.
Season the cutlets with pepper and salt, brush with clarified butter, and broil over a clear fire.
Serve the cutlets neatly with plain brown gravy underneath.

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).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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