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Lamb, Breast Of, Collared

A collared lamb breast seasoned with anchovies, egg yolks, lemon, mace, nutmeg, breadcrumbs, and parsley, then boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lamb, Breast Of, Collared

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove the bones, gristle, and skin from the lamb breast and lay it flat on a table.

  2. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt and black pepper over the meat.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a mortar, wash and bone the anchovies, then pound them with the yolks of the hard‑boiled eggs.

  2. Add the minced lemon rind, powdered mace, grated nutmeg, bread crumbs, and minced parsley to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

Roll and cook

  1. Roll the lamb breast tightly, tie it in a cloth, and secure it with tape.

  2. Boil gently for 20 minutes per pound.

  3. Once cooked, place the lamb under a weight and do not remove the tape until it is completely cold.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast
Forms the meat wrapper that holds the stuffing and becomes tender during gentle simmering.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds together when sliced.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Bind the stuffing into a smooth, cohesive paste and add richness.
Anchovies
Add savory depth and salty umami flavor to the stuffing.
Lemon rind
Adds bright acidic aroma that cuts the richness of the lamb.

The step that matters

Rolling and taping the lamb tightly. If the roll is loose, the stuffing can shift or leak during boiling, and the slices will not hold their shape. Tight rolling with even pressure keeps the layers compact and the collar neat once it is cold and pressed.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, egg, lemon, nutmeg, bread, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, egg, lemon, nutmeg, bread, parsley. 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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