Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Lamb with Tomato
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the lamb stock in a pot.
Add the butter, tomatoes, onion juice, white pepper, and coarse sea salt, then boil the mixture.
Add the diced lamb.
Simmer for a few minutes until heated through.
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.
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together979 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,407 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,232 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lamb stock
- Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients cook into.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and fresh tomato flavour to the broth.
- Cold lamb
- Provides the main meat, which only needs gentle heating through.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, tomato, butter, onion):
- Garlicfits better
- Cuminfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, tomato, butter, onion. 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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