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Lambs Feet and Ears Gratin

A gratin of lamb feet and ears filled with farce, cooked with carrot, onion, herbs, bacon, broth, and poele sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Lambs Feet and Ears Gratin

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.

Prepare

  1. Scald the lamb feet and ears, then remove the bones from the feet without breaking the skin.

  2. Trim the insides of the ears and soak them in cold water for several hours.

  3. Dry the feet and ears on a clean cloth, then fill the feet and ears with farce gode veau.

Stew

  1. In a stewpan, combine carrot, onion, sweet herbs, and a pinch of spice, then layer slices of fat bacon on top.

  2. Place the ears upright around the sides of the stewpan and the feet in between.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of light broth, cover the stewpan, and heat for a few minutes to set the filling.

  4. Pour in poele sauce and cover with white paper, then let them stew until tender.

  5. Remove from heat and dry on a napkin.

Gratin and serve

  1. Spread some farce on the serving dish, arrange the feet and ears neatly around it.

  2. Place in the oven at 400°F (200°C) to gratin, then glaze with a light glaze before serving with a clear sauce, mushrooms, or truffles.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb feet
Gelatinous skin and connective tissue become tender and silky after slow stewing.
Lamb ears
Cartilage and skin soften during stewing, giving a gelatinous, tender texture.
Farce gode veau
Fills the feet and ears and forms a moist, flavourful stuffing that sets during heating.
Fat bacon
Lays fat over the stew, adding richness and savoury flavour as it renders.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the stewing liquid and base.

The step that matters

Stewing until tender. Lamb feet and ears are rich in collagen and cartilage, which only turn tender and silky with long, gentle simmering. Rushing this leaves them tough and gelatin-poor, and a boiling pot can break the skin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, carrot, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, sauce):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, carrot, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, sauce. 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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