Name: Haunch of Mutton
Ingredients: 1 haunch of mutton; juice of 1 Seville orange or lemon; pepper; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Orange and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,402 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Haunch of Mutton

Ingredients

1 haunch of mutton
juice of 1 Seville orange or lemon
pepper
coarse sea salt

Directions

Cut down to the bone in the designated line to let out the gravy.
Turn the broad end of the haunch towards you.
Insert a knife at the specified point and cut as deep as possible to the end of the haunch.
Serve in thin slices, ensuring each person receives some fat and gravy.

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.

Orange + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,402 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + orangetop 36% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together75 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).