Name: Lamb and Currant Pie
Ingredients: 2 pounds breast of lamb, cut into small pieces; 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 tablespoon finely minced parsley; ¼ nutmeg, grated; 3 tablespoons picked currants; 2 eggs; ⅓ cup sherry; Pie crust

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lamb and Currant Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the lamb pieces in a pie dish.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, parsley, grated nutmeg, and currants over the lamb.

Assemble and bake

Beat the eggs and mix with sherry, then pour over the meat.
Line the edges of the dish with pie crust and cover with more crust.
Bake for 1.5 hours.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,322 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Currant + sherrytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together393 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Breast of lamb: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and savory during the long bake.
Eggs: Set with the sherry mixture to bind the filling into a sliceable custard-like texture.
Currants: Add small bursts of sweetness that contrast with the rich, savory meat.
Sherry: Adds acidity and aromatic depth that balances the richness of the lamb.
Pie crust: Encloses the filling, trapping steam and moisture while the pie cooks.

The step that matters

Pouring the egg and sherry mixture over the meat. The egg mixture must be evenly distributed so it can set around the lamb during baking. Pouring it unevenly can leave dry patches or a loose, runny filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, egg, sherry):

Lemonfits better
Limefits better
Cherryfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, egg, sherry. 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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Lamb and Currant Pie