Name: Breast Op Mutton
Ingredients: Breast of mutton; Chopped parsley; Cucumbers; Bread crumbs; Herbs; Seasoning; Chopped walnuts; Caper sauce; Butter

Why it works: Cucumber and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 380 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Breast Op Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Cut off any excess fat from the breast of mutton.
Roast the meat and serve it with stewed cucumbers or cold with chopped parsley.
For grilling, half boil the meat, then grill it, covering with bread crumbs and herbs, and serve with caper sauce.
If boned, remove some fat, cover with bread, herbs, and seasoning, then roll and boil.
Serve with chopped walnuts or capers and butter.

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.

Cucumber + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together380 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together865 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + cucumbertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,564 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, parsley, bread, walnut, sauce, butter):

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits better
Lettucefits better
Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, bread, walnut, sauce, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.