Name: Chine, or Saddle of Mutton Roasted, with Pickles
Ingredients: saddle of mutton; pickles; slices of bacon; brains; parsley; butter

Why it works: Parsley and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chine, or Saddle of Mutton Roasted, with Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Roast the saddle of mutton until cooked through.
Prepare pickles as a side.
Boil the brains until tender, then mash with parsley and butter.
Grill the bacon slices until crispy.
Serve the grilled bacon on top of the mashed brains.

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.

Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + parsleytop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,915 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).