Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
House-lamb Steaks, White
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the lamb steaks in milk and water until very tender, adding lemon peel, salt, pepper, and mace.
Prepare veal gravy and place the steaks into it.
Mix mushroom powder, heavy cream, and flour; shake the steaks in this mixture.
Stir and heat until hot, then add a few white mushrooms just before serving.
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 + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,165 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lamb + vealtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together568 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, milk, lemon, pepper, veal, cream, flour):
- Parsleyfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, milk, lemon, pepper, veal, cream, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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