Name: Spring Lamb Shepherd’s Pie
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 1 kg quality boneless shoulder of lamb; 2 tablespoons flour; sea salt; freshly ground black pepper; 2 lugs olive oil; 1 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped; 2 sticks celery, trimmed and roughly chopped; 1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped; 50 g higher-welfare pancetta, roughly chopped; 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 1 small bunch fresh rosemary, leaves picked; 400 g tinned plum tomatoes, chopped; 250 ml organic lamb or vegetable stock; 1 kg Desirée potatoes; 200 ml milk; 2 knobs butter

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, flour, pepper, olive, celery, carrot, clove):

Eggplantfits better
Parsnipfits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, flour, pepper, olive, celery, carrot, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Lamb	100g cooked	294
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Rosemary	1 tsp dried (1.2g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Spring Lamb Shepherd’s Pie