Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Saddle of Lamb
Ingredients
Directions
Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the saddle of lamb.
Place the lamb in a dripping pan with a few small pieces of butter on top.
Baste occasionally with rendered lamb fat.
Dredge a little flour over the lamb a few minutes before removing it from the oven.
Serve with currant jelly and a selection of early vegetables.
Offer mint sauce on the side, but keep it mild.
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.
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Lamb + minttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together772 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,232 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, butter, flour, mint, sauce):
- Limefits better
- Lemonfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, flour, mint, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More lamb saddle recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.