Name: To Stew a Breast of Lamb
Ingredients: 1 breast of lamb, cut into pieces; coarse sea salt, to taste; black pepper, to taste; gravy, enough to cover the meat; ⅓ cup sherry; stewed mushrooms, for serving

Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

To Stew a Breast of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lamb

Season the lamb pieces with salt and pepper.
Stew the lamb in enough gravy to cover it until tender.
Thicken the sauce.
Stir in the sherry.

Serve

Serve the lamb on a dish of stewed mushrooms.

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.

Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,165 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lamb + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Lamb + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together469 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb: Forms the main body of the stew and becomes tender through slow braising.
Gravy: Provides the liquid and savory flavor in which the lamb cooks and forms the sauce.
Sherry: Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, rounding out its flavor.

The step that matters

Stew the lamb until tender. Lamb tenderness depends on slow, moist cooking that breaks down connective tissue. Stopping too early leaves the meat tough, so it should be checked until it gives easily under a fork.

“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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To Stew a Breast of Lamb