Name: Breaded Lamb Chops with Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients: tender lamb chops, 1 inch thick; coarse sea salt; black pepper; fine bread crumbs; ripe round tomatoes; sugar; onion juice; melted butter; parsley sprigs

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Breaded Lamb Chops with Stuffed Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Wipe and trim excess fat from the lamb chops. Season with salt and pepper.
Cover the chops with fine bread crumbs and place them on a rack in a baking pan.
Cut a small circle off the opposite side of each tomato from the stem and scoop out a little flesh.
Fill the cavity of each tomato with fine bread crumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar, a few drops of onion juice, and melted butter.
Replace the circles cut off on top of the tomatoes, place one tomato on each chop, and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes.
If necessary, shield the tomatoes with greased paper and decorate with sprigs of parsley before serving.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, bread, tomato, sugar, butter, parsley):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Carrotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, bread, tomato, sugar, butter, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.