Name: Fobe Quabteb of Lamb
Ingredients: 1 shoulder of lamb; ½ Seville orange, juiced; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'), to taste

Why it works: Orange and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,402 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fobe Quabteb of Lamb

Ingredients

1 shoulder of lamb
½ Seville orange, juiced
pepper, to taste
coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'), to taste

Directions

Separate the shoulder from the breast and ribs by cutting under the knuckle.
Place the shoulder on a separate dish.
Squeeze the juice of half a Seville orange over the breast and ribs.
Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Cut along the designated lines to separate the ribs from the gristly part.

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.

Orange + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,402 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,165 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lamb + orangetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together123 recipes

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