Skip to main content
Main

Leg of Lamb Roast

A roasted leg of lamb cooked with tomatoes, mustard, vinegar, onion, and catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Leg of Lamb Roast

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the leg of lamb thoroughly in soda water (½ teaspoon soda to 1 gallon of water).

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne.

  3. Sift a little flour over the top of the roast and spread a little butter on this to brown the flour.

Roast

  1. Place the meat in a covered roaster and add the tomatoes, mustard, vinegar, onion, and catsup.

  2. Set the roaster on a round rack in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) and cook for 3½ hours.

  3. Baste the roast 3 or 4 times during cooking.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of lamb
Forms the main body of the roast, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity to the braising liquid, helping keep the meat tender.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and helps balance the richness of the lamb.
Catsup
Contributes sweetness, acidity and body to the sauce around the roast.
Flour
Dusted on the surface with butter, it helps the outside of the roast brown.

The step that matters

Basting during the roast. Basting the roast several times keeps the surface moist and carries liquid over the meat, helping prevent drying and promoting even browning over the long cook.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, mustard, vinegar, onion, pepper, flour, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, mustard, vinegar, onion, pepper, flour, butter. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes