Name: Sobe-qtjaetbb of Lamb
Ingredients: 1 small piece of butter; cayenne pepper to taste; juice of 1 lemon; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Sobe-qtjaetbb of Lamb

Ingredients

1 small piece of butter
cayenne pepper to taste
juice of 1 lemon
coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Remove the shoulder from the lamb, separating the breast and shoulder.
Place a small piece of butter between the breast and shoulder.
Sprinkle with cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and coarse sea salt.
Allow the butter to melt and mix with the meat and gravy.
Remove the shoulder to another dish if convenient.
Cut through the meat to separate the ribs from the brisket.
Carve the ribs in the direction of the lines indicated.
Carve the brisket in the direction of the lines indicated.
Ask guests which parts they prefer: ribs, brisket, or shoulder.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).