Name: Lamb or Kid Pie
Ingredients: Lamb or kid meat (fore quarter or loin); Coarse sea salt; Mushrooms; Spices; Sweet herbs; Artichoke bottoms; Eggs; Stock or water; White wine

Why it works: Mushroom and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Lamb or Kid Pie

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.

Cut the lamb or kid meat into chops.
Season with coarse sea salt, mushrooms, spices, and sweet herbs.
Add artichoke bottoms and eggs if desired.
Place the mixture in a pie crust.
Pour in a little stock or water and white wine.
Cover the pie and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until cooked through.

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.

Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Mushroom + artichoketop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together447 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Artichoke + white winetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together206 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lamb + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Lamb + artichoketop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together59 recipes

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