Name: Mutton Cutlets
Ingredients: 3 lbs best end of the neck of mutton; 1 egg; ½ cup bread crumbs; salt; pepper; 3 oz clarified butter

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton by trimming the rib and chine bones.
Joint each cutlet and cut close to the bone.
Beat each cutlet to about ½ inch thick.
Trim the cutlets, leaving ½ inch of the rib bone bare.
Rub bread crumbs through a sieve onto a piece of paper.
Beat the egg in a plate.
Season the cutlets with salt and pepper on both sides.
Dip the cutlets in the egg, coating them well.
Cover the cutlets with bread crumbs, lifting them by the bone.
Heat clarified butter in a sauté pan.
Place the cutlets in the pan with the bones facing the center.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,488 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).