Why it works: Parsley and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,198 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Roast Quarter of Lamb
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lamb
Lard the quarter of lamb slightly with salt pork.
Sprinkle the lamb with bread crumbs and finely-chopped parsley.
Make the sauce and bake
Make a sauce by combining stock gravy, vinegar, chopped mint, egg yolk, and mushroom catsup.
Pour the sauce over the lamb.
Let it stand in the oven for a few moments.
Serve
Serve with green peas boiled with a little bunch of mint.
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.
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Parsley + minttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,198 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lamb + porktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together623 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,322 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Quarter of lamb
- Provides the main meat, which is cooked through in the oven.
- Egg yolk
- Helps bind the sauce and gives it a smooth, rich body.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a light crust on the surface of the lamb as it bakes.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savoury flavour to the lean lamb as it cooks.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and mushroom sauce.
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pork, bread, parsley, vinegar, egg, mushroom):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pork, bread, parsley, vinegar, egg, mushroom. 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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