Name: Remains of Roast or Boiled Lamb with Peas
Ingredients: 2 pounds of lamb, bones included; 2 teaspoons of flour; 1 teaspoon of chopped onions; 1 teaspoon of salt; ¼ teaspoon of pepper; ½ pint of water; 1 bay leaf; 1 pint of green peas, already boiled

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Remains of Roast or Boiled Lamb with Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the lamb into small pieces.

Make the stew

In a stewpan, combine the lamb, flour, chopped onions, salt, pepper, and water.
Stir gently until near boiling.
Add the bay leaf and boiled peas.

Simmer and serve

Simmer for 30 minutes and serve.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,165 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together650 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb: Provides the meat, which becomes tender during slow simmering.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid into a lighter sauce as it heats.
Green peas: Add sweetness and a soft texture to the finished stew.
Chopped onions: Add savoury depth and aroma as they soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Stir gently until near boiling. Flour mixed into cold liquid can form lumps. Gentle stirring as the liquid warms spreads the flour evenly so its starch thickens the stew smoothly instead of clumping.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, flour, onion, pepper):

Lentilsfits better
Chickpeafits better
Sesamefits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, flour, onion, pepper. 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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Remains of Roast or Boiled Lamb with Peas