Name: Mutton Pudding
Ingredients: large slices of underdone leg of mutton; suet crust; coarse sea salt; black pepper; 1 shallot or young onions, finely chopped

Why it works: Pepper and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

Line a basin with a good suet crust.
Place the large slices of mutton in the basin.
Season the meat with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and finely chopped shallot or young onions.
Cover the meat with the suet crust.

Cook

Boil for 2 hours.

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.

Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + shallottop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together407 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton: Forms the main filling, becoming tender as it cooks through in the basin.
Suet crust: Encloses the meat and its juices, and its suet fat keeps the crust tender.
Shallot or young onions: Adds a mild aroma and savoury flavour to the meat.