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Stew of Lamb, with Rice

A lamb stew cooked with rice, butter, onion, ham, garlic, broth, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Stew of Lamb, with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew base

  1. Melt butter.

  2. Fry lamb squares on medium heat until browned.

  3. Add chopped onion, diced ham, salt, pepper, and garlic, and fry for a few more minutes.

  4. Pour in broth and bring to a boil for 3 minutes, then reduce heat.

Add rice and finish

  1. When lamb is nearly done, add rice and 2 cups of liquid.

  2. Boil covered for 15 minutes.

  3. Transfer to the oven to finish cooking the rice without breaking the grains.

  4. Serve when done.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lamb + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder or brisket of lamb
Provides the main meat, which browns and becomes tender as it simmers.
Raw ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the broth and stew base.
Chopped onion
Softens and sweetens as it fries, building the flavor base of the stew.
Rice
Absorbs the cooking liquid and sets the final texture of the dish.

The step that matters

Frying the lamb until browned. Browning creates deep, savory flavors through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or using too low heat makes the meat steam and turn grey, losing that flavor.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, butter, onion, ham, pepper, garlic, rice):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, onion, ham, pepper, garlic, rice. 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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