Name: Lamb
Ingredients: Lamb; water; spinach; carrots; cabbage; broccoli; melted butter

Why it works: Spinach and broccoli match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the lamb in plenty of water, allowing 15 minutes per pound.
When done, serve with spinach, carrots, cabbage, or broccoli, and melted butter.

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.

Spinach + broccolitop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Cabbage + broccolitop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together171 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Spinach + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together870 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + broccolitop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Spinach + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together190 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb: Is the main protein that is cooked through by simmering in water.
Melted butter: Adds fat and richness to the vegetables and meat served with it.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, spinach, carrot, broccoli, butter):

Turnipfits better
Asparagusfits better
Potatofits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, spinach, carrot, broccoli, butter. 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.