Name: Minced Mutton
Ingredients: 1 pint neck of mutton or leg, minced; 2 onions, chopped; 1 lettuce, chopped; 1 cup green peas; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 4 tablespoons water; 2-3 ounces clarified butter; cayenne pepper (optional)

Why it works: Lettuce and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Minced Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

In a stewpan, combine minced mutton, onions, lettuce, green peas, salt, pepper, water, and clarified butter.
Cover the stewpan and simmer for 2 hours.
Serve the mixture in the center of a dish of boiled dry rice.
If desired, add a little cayenne pepper for extra flavor.

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.

Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,562 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton: Provides the main meat and richness, which the long simmer makes tender.
Onions: Add sweetness and aroma as they soften into the stew.
Clarified butter: Adds fat and rich flavor to the mixture.
Green peas: Add sweetness and soft texture to the stew.

Swap the lettuce

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

Potatofits better
Leekfits better
Asparagusfits better
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, peas, pepper, butter. 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.