Why it works: Lamb and cumin work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 492 recipes mention both. Both carry sabinene, which smells woody, terpenic. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: egg (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Rub the lamb steaks all over with the olive oil and ground cumin. Heat a dry heavy frying pan over high heat until very hot.
Cook the lamb steaks for about 3 to 4 minutes per side until browned and cooked through to at least 145°F (63°C) in the thickest part. Rest them on a board for 3 minutes, then slice thinly.
While the lamb cooks, stir the sugar into the white wine vinegar until dissolved. Toss with the cabbage, carrots and spring onions in a bowl.
Blend or finely chop the 3 whole peppadew peppers and stir them into the mayonnaise to make a spicy mayo.
Warm the pitta or flatbreads. Spread each with spicy mayo, add sliced lamb, the slaw and the 2 roughly sliced peppadew peppers, then roll up to serve.
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.
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Lamb + cumintop 4% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together492 recipes
Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
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Cumin + carrottop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together776 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together21,599 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Olive + cumintop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,309 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10,843 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, olive, cumin, sugar, white wine, vinegar, carrot):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, olive, cumin, sugar, white wine, vinegar, carrot. 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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