Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Peas with Lamb
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the lamb in enough water to cover it. Add salt and onion.
When the lamb is half cooked, add the peas that have been boiled in another saucepan for 10 minutes.
Once the meat and peas are done, remove the fat.
Thicken the broth with flour and add the pea water to create a butter sauce.
Flavor the sauce with parsley.
Use the meat broth for soup or add one or two egg yolks and serve in cups.
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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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,322 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,885 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Onion + peastop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,460 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
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, flour, parsley):
- Chickpeafits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Beansfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, flour, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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