Why it works: Capers and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Boiled Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the leg of mutton clean and wipe it dry.
Boil
Place the mutton in a pot and cover it with hot salted water.
Boil until tender, about 12 minutes per pound, skimming off the scum as it rises.
Once cooked, drain the mutton completely.
Serve
Serve with melted butter and capers, or cucumber pickles if preferred.
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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Capers + cucumbertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together303 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + cucumbertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,185 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Mutton + cucumbertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together202 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 cut that becomes tender and juicy as it simmers in water.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and fat to balance the lean, plain boiled meat.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum while boiling. Foam that rises during boiling is made of coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing it as it forms keeps the broth clear and prevents the scum from settling back onto the meat, which would give the meat an unclean flavour.
“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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