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Tslchi.

A lamb breast stew with cabbage, carrots, onions, barley, and prunes, served as broth and meat separately.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Fennel and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Tslchi.

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, add water as for a stew and the lamb breast.

  2. Add fennel, peppercorns, and salt.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Once boiling, add the cabbage, carrots, and diced onions.

  5. Stir in the pearl barley or semolina.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook for 3 hours.

  2. Add prunes.

  3. Cook for an additional hour.

  4. Serve the broth as soup and the meat separately.

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.

  1. Fennel + carrottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + barleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast
Provides the main meat and rich flavour to the broth as it cooks slowly.
Pearl barley
Thickens the broth slightly and adds body as its starch releases during long cooking.
Prunes
Add sweetness and a deep, mellow flavour that balances the savoury broth.
Cabbage
Softens during long simmering and adds sweetness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam. Foam from the meat contains impurities and proteins that can cloud the broth and give it an off taste if left to mix in.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, fennel, carrot, onion, barley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, fennel, carrot, onion, barley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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