Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Fricasseed Lambstones
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lambstones
Skin, wash, dry, and flour the lambstones.
Fry them in hog's lard until beautifully brown.
Place them on a sieve before the fire.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, thicken veal gravy with flour and butter.
Add lemon slice, mushroom ketchup, lemon pickle, nutmeg, and beaten egg yolk mixed with cream.
Heat the sauce gently, stirring until hot and white, but do not let it boil.
Combine and serve
Add the fried lambstones to the sauce and shake gently over the fire for 1-2 minutes.
Serve immediately in a hot dish and cover.
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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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,988 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lambstones
- The main protein, which browns in the fat and becomes tender in the sauce.
- Flour
- Coats the lambstones for browning and thickens the veal gravy into a sauce.
- Veal gravy
- Forms the savoury liquid base of the sauce.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it a smooth, rich body when gently heated.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce, helped by the egg yolk.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the sauce and helps form the flour roux.
The step that matters
Heat the sauce gently without boiling. Egg yolk in the sauce can curdle or turn grainy if it boils. Gentle heat, with constant stirring, keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.
“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.
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