Name: Mutton Chops in Disguise
Ingredients: Mutton chops; Pepper; Salt; Nutmeg; Parsley; Butter; Lard or dripping; Horse-radish; Gravy

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Chops in Disguise

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the mutton chops with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and parsley.
Roll each chop in well-buttered white paper, sealing the ends.
Heat lard or dripping in a stewpan and fry the chops until nicely browned.
Remove the chops and drain off excess fat.
Place the chops in a dish, garnish with horse-radish, and serve with 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together529 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Parsley + radishtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together120 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Swap the nutmeg

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

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Capersfits better
Nutmegthe original

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