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To Broil the Fore-quarter of Lamb

A method for broiling a lamb forequarter with a butter, flour, milk, parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Broil the Fore-quarter of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Take off the shoulder and lay it upon the gridiron with the breast.

  2. Cut the shoulder in two parts to facilitate its cooking.

  3. Put a tin sheet on top of the meat and place a weight upon it.

  4. Turn the meat around frequently to prevent its burning.

  5. Turn the meat over as soon as it is cooked on one side.

  6. Renew the coals occasionally so that all parts may cook alike.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add a teaspoonful of flour and stir until perfectly smooth.

  3. Slowly stir in a cup of cold milk.

  4. Let the sauce boil up once.

  5. Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper, and a teaspoonful of finely chopped fresh parsley.

Finish and serve

  1. When done, season the meat with butter, pepper, and salt—exactly like beefsteak.

  2. Serve the lamb with the sauce in a gravy boat, all hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

713Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb shoulder (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through over the coals to become tender and browned.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and adds richness to the seasoned meat.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked briefly in the butter.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy body once thickened.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the butter until perfectly smooth before adding the milk. Flour must be cooked briefly in fat and blended fully before liquid is added, otherwise it clumps and the sauce stays lumpy instead of thickening smoothly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper. 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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