Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Egg Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the lamb
Boil the leg of lamb in enough water to cover it for about 2 hours.
After 1 hour, skim the surface and add the rice, pepper, and salt.
Finish the soup
In a tureen, beat the eggs well.
Gradually add the boiling soup to the eggs, stirring constantly.
Serve
Serve the lamb with drawn butter, garnished with parsley and sliced hard-boiled eggs.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lamb + ricetop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together439 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,762 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,322 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leg of lamb
- Provides the meat and rich flavour that the broth is built on.
- Rice
- Thickens the soup slightly as its starch releases during simmering.
- Eggs
- Beaten into the hot broth, they set into silky ribbons and thicken the soup.
The step that matters
Adding the boiling soup to the eggs. Pour the hot soup in slowly while stirring constantly. This gently warms the beaten eggs so they thicken smoothly; adding it all at once or without stirring can scramble them into lumps.
“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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