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
Skin, wash, dry, and flour the lambstones.
Fry and drain
Fry them in hogs lard until beautifully brown.
Place them on a sieve before the fire.
Make the sauce
Thicken veal gravy with flour and butter over low heat.
Add lemon slice, mushroom ketchup, lemon pickle, nutmeg, and beaten egg yolk mixed with cream.
Stir until hot but do not let it boil.
Combine and serve
Add the fried lambstones and shake gently near the fire for 1-2 minutes.
Serve in a very 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).
-
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
- Provide the tender meat that is browned and then served in the sauce.
- Hogs lard
- Conducts heat for frying, browning the flour-coated lambstones.
- Veal gravy
- Forms the savoury liquid base that the sauce is built on.
- Flour
- Coats the meat for browning and thickens the gravy into a sauce.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and thickens the sauce when stirred in with cream.
- Thick cream
- Adds richness and body to the sauce, softening its flavour.
The step that matters
Stir the sauce without boiling. Once the egg yolk and cream go in, boiling can curdle the egg and make the sauce grainy. Heating gently keeps it smooth and thick.
“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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