Name: Gigot Aux Choux-fleurs. — Leg of Mutton with Cauliflowers
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton; 1 head of cauliflower; 2 tablespoons butter; coarse sea salt; coarse pepper; 1 cup cullis (or meat stock); 1 tablespoon vinegar

Why it works: Cauliflower and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,113 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gigot Aux Choux-fleurs. — Leg of Mutton with Cauliflowers

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the mutton

Boil the leg of mutton in water until cooked.

Prepare the cauliflower

Blanch the cauliflower, then boil it in fresh water with butter and salt.

Assemble and serve

Arrange the mutton on a serving dish and place the cauliflower around it.
Pour the sauce made with cullis, butter, salt, and pepper over the cauliflower.
Before serving, add a little vinegar to the dish.

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.

Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,113 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together888 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 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

Leg of mutton: Provides the main protein, cooked through by boiling until tender.
Cauliflower: Forms the vegetable side, becoming soft and mild when boiled.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cauliflower and sauce.
Cullis: Forms the savoury base of the sauce that is poured over the cauliflower.
Vinegar: Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich butter and meat flavours.

Swap the cauliflower

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

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Potatofits better
Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, pepper, meat, vinegar. 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.