Name: Lamb Broth
Ingredients: lean, juicy lamb meat; cold water; salt; peppercorns; 1 small onion; well-cooked rice

Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lamb Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the lamb meat into 1-inch pieces.
Cover the meat with cold water and let it stand for 30 minutes.
Heat the pot gradually on the stove.
Once it begins to boil, cook slowly for 30 minutes.
Add salt, peppercorns, and the small onion when heating.
Strain the broth and season to taste.
Add a little well-cooked rice before serving.
Skim off all the fat after straining, not before.

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.

Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lamb + ricetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together439 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lamb + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together469 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,407 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).