Name: Saddle of Mutton
Ingredients: Saddle of mutton; Salt; Pepper; Butter; Lemon or Seville orange

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Saddle of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Divide the tail end of the saddle of mutton as shown in the engraving.
Skewer the kidneys under each division if desired.
Carve thin slices from A to B, serving fat from C to D.
Carve from the vertebra on both sides of the loin, then slice crosswise as marked.
Use a sharp knife for clean cuts.
For a small loin, carve in chops starting with the outer chop; for a large loin, carve slices the whole length.
For the fore-quarter of lamb, place a fork near the knuckle and cut from A to C, then to B and D.
Lift with the fork while passing the knife underneath.
Squeeze juice of half a lemon or Seville orange under the shoulder, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add a slice of butter.
Reunite the parts until the butter melts, then place the shoulder on a separate dish.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,781 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).