Name: A Saddle of Lamb
Ingredients: 1 saddle of lamb; coarse sea salt; flour; mint sauce

Why it works: Lamb and mint work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 772 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Saddle of Lamb

Ingredients

1 saddle of lamb
coarse sea salt
flour
mint sauce

Directions

Prepare the saddle of lamb as you would a saddle of mutton.
Do not saw the backbone; cut through the joints on both sides of the chine.
Salt the meat and dredge it well with flour.
Baste the lamb often until it is cooked through.
Serve with mint sauce.

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.

Lamb + minttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together772 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,078 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lamb + flourtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,402 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together925 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Flour + minttop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,037 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).