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 Shoulder of Lamb
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Season the shoulder of lamb with coarse sea salt and pepper.
Roast and rest
Place the lamb in a roasting pan and roast for about 1.5 hours or until cooked through.
Let the lamb rest for 10 minutes before carving.
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.
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Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,165 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
- Lamb shoulder
- Provides the main protein, whose connective tissue softens into tender meat during slow roasting.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the meat and helps draw out flavour across the surface.
The step that matters
Letting the lamb rest before carving. Heat pushes juices toward the centre of the meat. Resting lets the fibres relax so juices settle back in, and carving too early lets them run out onto the board, leaving the meat drier.
“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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