Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Braised Breast of Lamb
Ingredients
Directions
Have the butcher remove all bones from the lamb.
Wipe the lamb carefully with a damp cloth.
Prepare a dressing of bread crumbs fried in butter, adding grated onion, parsley, thyme, and spices to taste.
Stuff the dressing into the open side of the lamb, roll it up neatly, and tie with kitchen twine.
Fry the chopped vegetables in butter until softened.
Heat an iron pot until very hot, add butter, and brown the lamb roll on all sides.
Add the fried vegetables and just enough boiling water or broth to cover.
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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Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,842 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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 turnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, parsley, bread, butter, tomato, pepper, carrot):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Eggplantfits better
- Turnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, parsley, bread, butter, tomato, pepper, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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