Name: Lamb Sweetbreads En Fritot
Ingredients: 2 pieces of soda (about the size of two peas); a good bunch of fresh mint; 1 pint boiling Espagnol sauce; 1 spoonful white sauce

Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Lamb Sweetbreads En Fritot

Ingredients

2 pieces of soda (about the size of two peas)
a good bunch of fresh mint
1 pint boiling Espagnol sauce
1 spoonful white sauce

Directions

Boil the mint and soda in water until cooked well.
Strain the mixture and rub it through a fine sieve with a wooden spoon.
Place the resulting puree in a small saucepan and mix in the white sauce.
Divide the mixture between two entrees.
Pour ½ pint of boiling Espagnol sauce around each entree before serving.

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.

Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Peas + saucetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,109 recipes
Mint + saucetop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together568 recipes