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Bbeast of Lamb and Gbeen Peas

A stew of lamb breast simmered with bacon, stock, lemon, onion, savory herbs, and green peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,005 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Bbeast of Lamb and Gbeen Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove the skin from the breast of lamb and simmer it in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  2. Transfer the lamb to cold water.

Stew

  1. Line the bottom of a stewpan with bacon slices and place the lamb on top.

  2. Peel the lemon, slice it, and place the slices on the lamb to keep it white and tender.

  3. Cover the lamb with 1 or 2 more slices of bacon, then add the stock, onion, and herbs.

  4. Set the stewpan on low heat and simmer gently until the lamb is tender.

Serve

  1. Prepare green peas and place them on a dish, then place the lamb on top.

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. Lemon + peastop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,005 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

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

  4. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Lemon + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow simmering.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor to the stew as it renders into the liquid.
Stock
Supplies the cooking liquid that gently tenders the lamb and carries flavor.
Lemon
Adds acidity and brightness, and its slices are placed on the lamb as a covering.
Green peas
Provide sweetness and a fresh, vegetable texture against the rich lamb.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the lamb is tender. Boiling rather than gently simmering toughens meat proteins and can break the lamb apart. Slow, low heat lets connective tissue soften into moist, tender meat.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Pumpkinfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, peas. 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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