Name: Lamb's Feet, with Asparagus Peas
Ingredients: 12 lamb's feet, ready scalded; sheets of bacon; 2 lemons, peeled and sliced; ½ pint second stock; asparagus peas; beshemell sauce

Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lamb's Feet, with Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

Remove the worm from between the hoof of each lamb's foot.
Loosen the skin and gristle from the shank bone.
Place the feet in cold water and bring to a boil until the shank bone pulls out easily.

Braise

Cover the bottom of a stewpan with bacon sheets.
Add the lamb's feet and sliced lemons to the stewpan.
Pour in the second stock.
Cover the stewpan with bacon and paper.
Simmer gently for 1 hour.
Remove the feet from the stewpan.
Let the feet dry on a clean cloth.

Plate and serve

Arrange the feet around a dish.
Top the feet with asparagus peas.
In a separate stewpan, add asparagus with just enough stock to cover.
Boil the asparagus until reduced, being careful not to burn.
Heat the béchamel sauce beside the stove without boiling.

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.

Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together808 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + asparagustop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together704 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together207 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Lemon + peastop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,005 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together650 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb's feet: Provide the main meat and gelatinous body from the shank bones and connective tissue.
Sheets of bacon: Add smoky, savoury fat and flavour to the base of the stewpan.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the rich, gelatinous braising liquid.
Second stock: Supplies the liquid that gently cooks the feet and builds savoury flavour.
Béchamel sauce: Adds a smooth, creamy richness that coats the feet and vegetables.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 1 hour. Boiling rather than simmering toughens the meat and can break the feet apart. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue slowly convert to gelatin, giving a tender, silky result.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, asparagus, peas, sauce):

Lemonthe original
Avocadofits about as well
Pumpkinfits about as well
Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, asparagus, peas, sauce. 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Green Peas229 recipes

Asparagus Soup179 recipes

Asparagus Salad77 recipes

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Lamb's Feet, with Asparagus Peas