Name: Roast Leg of Lamb
Ingredients: hind quarter of lamb; caper sauce; pickle sauce; mint sauce; boiled mashed potatoes

Why it works: Lamb and potato work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 520 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Roast Leg of Lamb

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.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roast the hind quarter of lamb until well done on the outside and pink within.
Serve steaming hot with caper, pickle, or mint sauce.
If serving leftovers, carve neatly through the center.
Stuff the cut-out space with boiled mashed potatoes and smooth it evenly.
Place it back in the oven until thoroughly hot.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together520 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Lamb + minttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together772 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mint + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together363 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together925 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Sauce + potatotop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,073 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).