Why it works: Butter and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Mutton Cutlets, a LA Bretonne
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mutton cutlets by breading them as usual.
Fry the cutlets in butter until they are light in color and glazed.
Cut or scoop the small potatoes into olive shapes and fry them in butter until yellow.
Place the fried potatoes in the center of the cutlets.
Pour Bretome sauce under the cutlets and serve.
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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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + saucetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, sauce):
- Shallotfits better
- Onionfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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