Name: Mutton and Beef
Ingredients: 1 sheep; coarse sea salt; black pepper; butter or lard; strong vinegar

Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton and Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Have the sheep killed at sunset, skin it, and hang it until the next morning.
Cut it up early, keeping the brains, kidneys, one leg, saddle, and best end of the neck.
Salt and pepper the saddle and leg, and keep them in a cool place.
If safety is in doubt, briefly fry the meat in hot butter or lard, or plunge the leg in boiling water.
Wash any unclean meat in a mixture of strong vinegar and water before cooking.

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 + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).