Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Mutton Rumps and Kidneys
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the rumps
Stew the mutton rumps in good mutton gravy for 1 hour.
Remove the rumps and let them cool.
Strain the gravy to remove fat.
Add boiled rice, the onion with cloves, and mace; boil until the rice thickens.
Coat and fry
Wash the rumps with beaten egg yolks.
Coat the rumps with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, parsley, thyme, and lemon peel.
Fry the rumps in butter until golden brown.
Drain excess grease from the fried rumps before serving.
Roast the kidneys and serve
Lard the kidneys.
Roast the kidneys in a Dutch oven.
Warm the rice in the pan after clearing it of fat.
Serve the rice on a dish, arrange the rumps around it with narrow ends towards the center, and place the kidneys in between.
Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut in half or assorted pickles.
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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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 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 rumps
- Stewing in gravy makes the meat tender before it is coated and fried.
- Egg yolks
- Beaten yolks act as a binder so the bread crumb coating adheres to the rumps.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden crust when the coated rumps are fried in butter.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and promotes browning of the crumb coating.
- Boiled rice
- Thickens the strained gravy as it boils, giving it body.
The step that matters
Fry the rumps in butter until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the crumb coating before it burns; the crust sets the coating and gives flavour, and excess grease should be drained afterward.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, rice, onion, clove, egg, bread, pepper):
- Turmericfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, onion, clove, egg, bread, pepper. 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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