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Lamb, Boned, Quarter of

A roasted quarter of lamb, seasoned with veal forcemeat and basted with fat, served with mint sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 896 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lamb, Boned, Quarter of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bone from the quarter of lamb, keeping the knife close to the bone.

  2. Spread the veal forcemeat over the meat.

  3. Roll the meat securely and skewer it firmly, then bind it with tape.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast over a clear fire, basting liberally with beef or mutton fat.

  2. Roast for 20 minutes per pound.

  3. Serve with mint sauce.

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. Lamb + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together896 recipes

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

  2. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Lamb + minttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together772 recipes

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

  4. Lamb + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together925 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Forms the main body of the roast and supplies the meat that is cooked and served.
Veal forcemeat
Adds moisture and a soft, savoury layer that enriches the lean lamb as it roasts.
Beef or mutton fat
Coats the surface during roasting, keeping the meat moist and promoting browning.

The step that matters

Roll and bind the meat firmly. A loose roll can open or lose its shape in the heat, so the forcemeat may spill out and the cuts may cook unevenly. Firm skewering and taping keep the roast compact so it cooks evenly.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, veal, beef, sauce):

  1. Pepperfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, veal, beef, 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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