Name: Hearty Lamb & Barley Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 tsp olive oil; 200g lamb neck fillet, trimmed of fat and cut into small pieces; ½ large onion , finely chopped; 50g pearl barley; 600g mixed root vegetables (we used potato, parsnip and swede, cubed); 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce; 1¾ pint s 1 litre lamb or beef stock; 1 thyme sprig; 100g green beans (frozen are fine), finely chopped

Why it works: Lamb and barley share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 74 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4

Prep10 min

Cook25 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

1 tsp olive oil
200g lamb neck fillet, trimmed of fat and cut into small pieces
½ large onion, finely chopped
50g pearl barley
600g mixed root vegetables (we used potato, parsnip and swede, cubed)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1¾ pint s 1 litre lamb or beef stock
1 thyme sprig
100g green beans (frozen are fine), finely chopped

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Lamb + barleytop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together74 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Parsnip + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together270 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together9,019 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Barley + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together165 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Olive + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,641 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, lamb, onion, barley, potato, sauce, thyme):

Tomatobetter flavor fit
Carrotbetter flavor fit
Asparagusbetter flavor fit
Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, lamb, onion, barley, potato, sauce, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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