Name: Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way
Ingredients: Mutton chops; Sliced shallot or onion; Chopped parsley; 2 bay leaves; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Forcemeat; Butter; Sauce Robart or gravy

Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets in the Portuguese Way

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the mutton chops and half-fry them with sliced shallot or onion, chopped parsley, and bay leaves.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Lay a piece of forcemeat on white paper, place the chop on it, and twist the paper, leaving a hole for the bone ends.
Cook on a gentle fire.
Serve with sauce Robart or a little gravy.

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.

Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,303 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the shallot

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

Shallotthe original
Carrotfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Potatofits less well

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