Name: Lamb in Light Gravy
Ingredients: 2 pounds lamb (back), cut into pieces; Salt and pepper, to taste; 1 tablespoon fresh butter; 1 cup broth (made from water and meat extract); 2 tablespoons flour; 4 tablespoons sour cream

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lamb in Light Gravy

Ingredients

2 pounds lamb (back), cut into pieces
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon fresh butter
1 cup broth (made from water and meat extract)
2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sour cream

Directions

Prepare

Rub the lamb pieces with salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a pot and add the lamb, turning it once.
Immediately add the broth and mix well.

Make the gravy

In a bowl, mix the flour with the sour cream, then pour it slowly into the pot.
Bring to a boil briefly, then cover the pot tightly.

Cook

Cook in the Caloric for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,165 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lamb + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together469 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb: Is the main protein, becoming tender as it cooks slowly in liquid.
Flour: Thickens the gravy as it heats in the liquid, giving it body.
Sour cream: Adds tanginess and creaminess, and keeps the gravy smooth and rich.
Butter: Adds fat and flavor, and helps the lamb brown lightly at the start.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and sour cream mixture. Flour mixed into dairy can clump if poured in carelessly. Mixing it first in a bowl and adding it slowly to the hot pot helps keep the gravy smooth.

“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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Lamb in Light Gravy