Why it works: Mutton and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,442 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Select bright, red, firm, and juicy mutton.
Place the mutton in a kettle of boiling water.
Skim the water as it begins to boil.
Keep the water boiling slowly and turn the meat occasionally.
Add fresh hot water as it evaporates.
Do not add salt until the meat is nearly done.
For fresh mutton, allow 20 minutes per pound; for salt mutton, 35 minutes per pound.
Add a pod of red pepper to the water to prevent odors.
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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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Is the main protein; it becomes tender and firm as it cooks slowly in water.
The step that matters
Do not add salt until the meat is nearly done. Salt added early can toughen the outer proteins and draw moisture out of the meat, so it is held back until the end of cooking.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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