Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Roast Lamb and Mint Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Stuff the hind quarter of lamb with fine bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and butter.
Sew the flap firmly to keep the stuffing in place.
Rub the outside with salt, pepper, butter, and a little of the stuffing or flour.
Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 2 hours.
For the mint sauce, chop the mint finely and pour on a little hot water.
Let it stand on the stove for a short time, then add a little vinegar and sugar to sweeten.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + minttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,165 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lamb + minttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together772 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, bread, pepper, butter, vinegar, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, bread, pepper, butter, vinegar, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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