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Roast Spring Lamb

A roasted spring lamb quarter seasoned with flour, salt, pepper, and cooked with hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,165 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Roast Spring Lamb

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Season the lamb with flour, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

Roast

  1. Roast the lamb for 15 minutes.

  2. After 15 minutes, add 1 cup of hot water and baste frequently.

  3. Cook for about 20 minutes per pound.

  4. Serve with mint sauce and green peas or asparagus and new potatoes.

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. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lamb + flourtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Spring lamb
Provides the meat that is cooked and served as the main dish.
Flour
Coats the surface of the lamb, helping it brown and form a crust during roasting.
Hot water
Adds moisture to the pan so the drippings can be basted over the lamb.

The step that matters

Basting the lamb. Spooning pan liquid over the meat during roasting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly. Without regular basting, the outside can dry out before the inside is cooked through.

“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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