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Barbecued Leg of Lamb

A butterflied leg of lamb, rubbed with spices and marinated overnight to get the flavours going, is Gordon's barbecue meat of choice

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Why it works: Lamb and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 520 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

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

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.

  1. Lamb + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,797 recipes

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

  5. Olive + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,688 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 lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, tomato, vinegar, olive, onion, potato, beetroot):

  1. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  2. Cherrybetter flavor fit
  3. Mangobetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, tomato, vinegar, olive, onion, potato, beetroot. 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).