Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Mutton Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Season the mutton steaks with salt, pepper, and onion.
Layer one set of steaks at the bottom of a baking dish.
Make the batter
Boil and mash the potatoes, then mix with milk and the egg to create a batter.
Assemble and bake
Pour half of the batter over the steaks.
Add the remaining steaks and pour the rest of the batter on top.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked through.
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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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
What each ingredient does
- Mutton steaks
- Provide the meat that cooks through beneath the batter, becoming tender during baking.
- Potatoes
- Mashed into the batter, adding body and a soft, starchy texture once baked.
- Egg
- Binds the mashed potato and milk so the batter sets firmly when baked.
- Milk
- Moistens the mashed potato into a pourable batter that bakes creamy.
The step that matters
Bake until cooked through. Mutton must reach a safe internal temperature throughout, and the thick layers under the batter can stay underdone if the dish is pulled too early.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, potato, milk, egg):
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, potato, milk, egg. 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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