Name: To Roast a Leg of Mutton with Oysters and Cockles
Ingredients: 1 leg of mutton (2-3 days old); oysters (enough to stuff the leg); horseradish (for garnish)

Why it works: Oyster and horseradish work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 282 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

To Roast a Leg of Mutton with Oysters and Cockles

Ingredients

1 leg of mutton (2-3 days old)
oysters (enough to stuff the leg)
horseradish (for garnish)

Directions

Stuff the leg of mutton with oysters.
Roast the stuffed leg of mutton until cooked to your preference.
Garnish with horseradish before serving.

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.

Oyster + horseradishtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together282 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Mutton + oystertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mutton + horseradishtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together47 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters: Fill the cavity of the leg, adding briny, savoury flavour to the meat as it cooks.
Leg of mutton: Serves as the main cut, providing the meat that is roasted and carved.