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Lamb and Peas

A lamb stew with peas, onion, mint, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Lamb and Peas

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the lamb, onion, pepper, salt, and water.

  2. Cook until the lamb is half done.

  3. Add the peas, lettuce, mint, and sugar.

  4. Stew thoroughly until cooked, ensuring there is not too much liquid.

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.

  1. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lettuce + minttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb neck
Provides the meat and fat that flavour the stew as it simmers.
Peas
Form the bulk of the stew and soften into a tender, sweet base.
Lettuce
Wilts into the liquid, adding body and a mild, green sweetness.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building savoury depth in the broth.

The step that matters

Stew thoroughly until cooked, ensuring there is not too much liquid.. Slow simmering breaks down the lamb's connective tissue, making it tender. Too much liquid dilutes the flavour and keeps the peas from concentrating into a thick, cohesive stew.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, peas, lettuce, mint, sugar):

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, peas, lettuce, mint, sugar. 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.

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