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Tofoi 'ce a Quarter of Lamb

A lamb quarter roasted and stewed in a gravy of mutton stock, Madeira wine, walnut ketchup, browning, lemon, cayenne, and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Tofoi 'ce a Quarter of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove the shank from the hind quarter of lamb and lift the thick part of the flesh from the bone.

  2. Stuff the cavity with white forcemeat and under the kidney.

Cook the lamb

  1. Half-roast the lamb, then place it in a pan with mutton gravy and cover it tightly.

  2. Stew gently until cooked, then remove from the pan and place on a serving dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Skim the fat from the gravy and strain it.

  2. Add Madeira wine, walnut ketchup, browning, lemon juice, cayenne, and oysters to the gravy.

  3. Thicken the gravy with butter rolled in flour and pour it hot over the lamb before serving.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + muttontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hind quarter of lamb
Forms the main meat, which is cooked until tender in the gravy.
White forcemeat
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and a soft, savoury texture to the meat.
Mutton gravy
Keeps the lamb moist during stewing and forms the base of the sauce.
Butter and flour
Thicken the gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Covering the lamb tightly while stewing. Stewing in a tightly covered pan traps steam and liquid around the meat, so it cooks gently and stays moist rather than drying out. Cooking too fast or uncovered can toughen the lean flesh.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, meat, mutton, madeira wine, walnut, pepper, oyster):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Grapefits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, meat, mutton, madeira wine, walnut, pepper, oyster. 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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