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Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet Peppers

Braised lamb shanks are an impressive and generous meal. If you like, remove the meat from the bones to serve an extra person or two. The topping of quickly sautéed peppers and crumbled feta adds tangy, fresh flavor and color to each serving. Accompany with orzo tossed with olive oil, finely chopped tomato and minced fresh parsley.

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Why it works: Lamb and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,165 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Lamb + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,165 recipes

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

  2. Oregano + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together776 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, olive, carrot, celery, oregano, cumin):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Eggplantbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, olive, carrot, celery, oregano, cumin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).