Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Oreilles D’agneau Lambs’ Ears
Ingredients
Directions
Stuff lambs' ears with liver or chicken farce.
Fry or braise the stuffed lambs' ears.
Serve with brown sauce or tomato sauce.
For a baked version, bread the stewed lambs' ears and bake.
For a curried version, serve with boiled rice.
For an Italian version, braise with Italian sauce.
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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Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lamb + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together439 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together979 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Bread + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, liver, sauce, bread, rice):
- Tomatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Shallotfits less well
- Mustardfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, liver, sauce, bread, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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