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Lamb Steaks with Rosemary Sweet Potatoes

This is great to have up your sleeve, impressive enough for a dinner party and quick enough for after work

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Why it works: Lamb and sweet potato share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 37 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Prep10 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Toss the sliced sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and the rosemary leaves stripped from the sprig, or the dried rosemary. Spread on a large baking sheet.

  2. Roast the sweet potatoes for about 15 minutes, until they start to soften and brown at the edges.

  3. While the potatoes roast, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the red onion and cook for 5 minutes, until softened.

  4. Push the onion to one side of the skillet and add the lamb steaks. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side, until browned.

  5. Spread the wholegrain mustard over the top of the steaks after turning them. Keep cooking until the thickest part reaches 145°F (63°C), about 1 to 2 more minutes per side.

  6. Move the lamb to a plate and rest for 3 minutes. Add a splash of water to the skillet if needed and stir to loosen the pan juices.

  7. Serve the lamb steaks with the roasted sweet potatoes and onions, spooning the pan juices over the top.

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.

  1. Lamb + sweet potatotop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together37 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Olive + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,489 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lamb + rosemarytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together396 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Onion + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Olive + lambtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 (olive, lamb, sweet potato, rosemary, mustard):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, lamb, sweet potato, rosemary, mustard. 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).