Name: Fore Quarter of Lamb
Ingredients: 1 whole fore quarter of lamb; butter (for greasing); 1 egg yolk; gravy (from cooking); bread crumbs; 1 lemon; mint sauce (for serving)

Why it works: Lemon and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fore Quarter of Lamb

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.

Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Grease a large sheet of paper with butter and wrap the lamb in it.
Place the lamb over a clear, even fire.
When nearly done, remove the paper and bacon.
Baste the meat with egg yolk mixed with gravy.
Sprinkle more bread crumbs over the lamb and let it brown nicely.
Squeeze lemon juice over the lamb before serving.
Serve with mint sauce.

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.

Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,998 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Lamb + minttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together772 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together598 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, butter, egg, bread, lemon, sauce):

Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Nutmegfits better
Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, egg, bread, lemon, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.