Name: To Boil Shoulder of Mutton with Oysters
Ingredients: Shoulder of mutton; Salt; Pepper; Mace; Oysters; Onion; Peppercorns; Flour; Butter

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Boil Shoulder of Mutton with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Hang the shoulder of mutton for a few days.
Salt it well for two days.
Bone the mutton and sprinkle it with pepper and pounded mace.
Lay oysters over the mutton, roll it up tightly, and tie it.
Stew in a small amount of water with an onion and a few peppercorns until tender.
Prepare a little gravy and stew some oysters in it.
Thicken the gravy with flour and butter, then pour it over the mutton after removing the tie.

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 + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,257 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, oyster, onion, flour, butter):

Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Garlicfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, oyster, onion, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.