Why it works: Onion and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,784 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Mutton Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Season the mutton chops with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Fry the chops in butter on both sides until nicely browned.
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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Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,784 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,646 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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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
Swap the horseradish
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter, onion):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Horseradishthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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