Name: Lamb Kofte with Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 500g lamb mince; 1 egg , beaten; a handful breadcrumbs; 1 red chilli , finely chopped; 1 red onion , grated; a small bunch parsley , chopped; ½ tsp ground cumin; 2 cloves , ground; 1 garlic clove , crushed; pitta bread or flatbreads to serve; Greek yogurt to serve; 3 tbsp red wine vinegar; 2 tbsp golden caster sugar; ½ red cabbage , shredded

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 ↓

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Cumin + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + cumintop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together821 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Cumin + clovetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,306 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, egg, onion, parsley, cumin, garlic, bread):

Turmericfits better
Oreganofits better
Corianderfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, egg, onion, parsley, cumin, garlic, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Lamb	100g cooked	294
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1

Lamb Kofte with Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage