Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Leg of Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
If roasting, serve with onion or currant jelly sauce.
If boiling, serve with caper sauce and vegetables.
For boiling, saw down the chine bone and chop off the ends of the bones about 4 inches.
Do not remove the skin until after boiling for a whiter appearance.
For stewing scrags, use broth or a small quantity of water with small onions, peppercorns, and rice.
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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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,019 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,531 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + ricetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,396 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sauce, rice):
- Tomatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sauce, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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