Name: Lamb or Mutton and Pease Stew
Ingredients: 1 pound lamb or mutton, cut into small pieces; 2 cups peas; 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (optional); 2 tablespoons white flour; ½ cup milk; Coarse sea salt, to taste

Why it works: Lamb and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,322 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lamb or Mutton and Pease Stew

Ingredients

1 pound lamb or mutton, cut into small pieces
2 cups peas
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons white flour
½ cup milk
Coarse sea salt, to taste

Directions

Make the stew

In a pot, boil the meat pieces until almost cooked.
Add the peas and continue boiling for another 30 minutes.
If desired, stir in the chopped parsley.

Thicken and season

In a small bowl, mix the flour with the milk to create a smooth paste.
Stir the flour mixture into the stew to thicken it.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste.

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 + parsleytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,322 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,885 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together650 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb or mutton: Provides the meat that gives the stew its body and savory flavor.
Peas: Add sweetness and soft texture as they cook into the stew.
White flour: Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich stew when stirred in.
Milk: Mixed with the flour to form a smooth paste that thickens and adds richness.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour paste into the stew. Flour clumps if added dry or unmixed; mixing it with milk first into a smooth paste lets starch disperse evenly, so the stew thickens without lumps.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, peas, flour, milk):

Cinnamonfits better
Turmericfits better
Cuminfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, peas, flour, milk. 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 or Mutton and Pease Stew