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Kebab

Skewered meat, fat, and vegetables served in bread with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Kebab

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into nut-sized pieces.

  2. On an iron skewer, alternate pieces of meat, fat, and vegetables.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Toast the skewers by the fire until roasted.

  2. Cut open a roll or flat piece of new bread.

  3. Remove kebabs from skewers and place inside the bread.

  4. Pour gravy over the kebabs and serve hot.

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.

  1. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  5. Meat + lambtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together469 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Tender meat
Provides the main protein and chewy, savory bulk of the dish.
Fat
Adds moisture and richness as it melts and bastes the meat during roasting.
Vegetables
Add moisture and mild sweetness, and brown slightly at the skewer's edges.
New bread
Soaks up juices and gravy, giving the dish a soft base to hold the kebabs.

The step that matters

Toast the skewers by the fire until roasted. Heat must cook the meat through while browning its surface. Too little heat leaves it underdone, and too much chars the outside before the interior is tender.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lamb, pepper, bread):

  1. Tomatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lamb, pepper, bread. 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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