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Family Stew of Lamb and Peas

A hearty stew of diced lamb, peas, and mint, served over tomato‑sauce‑soaked toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Family Stew of Lamb and Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Cut the lamb into dice, ensuring there is no fat or bone.

  2. Fry the sliced onion in the dripping or butter until brown.

  3. Strain the fat back into the pan.

  4. Dredge the meat with flour.

  5. Fry for 3 minutes, turning to sear both sides.

  6. Transfer the meat and fat to a saucepan.

Stew

  1. Add stock or butter and water.

  2. Cover, and stew for 1 hour or until the lamb is tender.

  3. Add the green peas and mint.

  4. Cover, and cook until the peas are tender but not breaking.

Thicken and serve

  1. Prepare a broad dish lined with toast soaked in tomato sauce.

  2. Transfer the meat and peas to the toast.

  3. Keep warm.

  4. Thicken the gravy left in the pot with butter rolled in browned flour.

  5. Season.

  6. Boil.

  7. Pour the gravy over the stew.

  8. Let it stand for 1 minute.

  9. Serve.

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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Peas + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  4. Mint + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together828 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Flour
Dredging the meat helps it brown and thickens the gravy.
Onion
Frying until brown adds sweetness and savoury depth to the base.
Green peas
Add sweetness and a bright texture to the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the stew and gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the peas. Peas added with the mint need enough time to turn tender but not so long that they break apart and cloud the gravy. Checking them by texture rather than the clock keeps them whole.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, butter, flour, peas, tomato, sauce):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, butter, flour, peas, tomato, sauce. 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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