Name: Leg of Mutton with Oysters
Ingredients: Leg of mutton; Veal stuffing; Oysters; 1 or 2 anchovies, boned, washed, and chopped small; Brown oyster sauce

Why it works: Oyster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,233 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Leg of Mutton with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Chop some oysters and mix them with the veal stuffing and anchovies.
Stuff the leg of mutton under the skin at the thickest part and near the knuckle.
Roast the stuffed leg of mutton.
Serve with brown oyster sauce made according to directions for oyster sauce using brown stock.

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.

Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,394 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Mutton + oystertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + oystertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together988 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,087 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).