Name: Boned Quarter of Lamb
Ingredients: 1 boned shoulder of lamb; 2 oz. butter; 1 teacupful water; cream; eggs; haricots; minced truffles; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Boned Quarter of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the shoulder from the lamb and bone it.
Stuff the lamb with fine forcemeat and skewer it into a nice shape.
In a pot, melt the butter and braise the lamb with water, stirring until the gravy is drawn.
Cut the brisket into pieces and stew them in white gravy, thickening with cream and eggs until very white.
Cut the long bones into chops and fry them.
Thicken the braise gravy and add haricots and minced truffles or seasonal vegetables.
Place the shoulder in the center of a dish with its sauce, surround it with the brisket covered in white sauce, and arrange the fried chops around the edge.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Lamb + truffletop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,232 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).