Name: Mutton Chops
Ingredients: Mutton chops; Coarse sea salt; Spices; Bread crumbs; Rich beef stock; Ketchup; Red wine; Pickles

Why it works: Mutton and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,373 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mutton Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the back ribs or loin into steaks and flatten them.
Season with coarse sea salt and spices, then sprinkle bread crumbs over them.
Heat a flying pan and add rich beef stock, ketchup, and red wine.
When it boils, transfer everything to a covered saucepan to stew.
Serve with cut pickles.

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 + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,373 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + red winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,017 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + red winetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together250 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (whiskey, malt).