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Lamb Pie

A pie filled with lamb, seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,322 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lamb Pie

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. Cut the lamb into neat pieces and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley.

  2. Place the meat in a pie dish and remove some bones for gravy.

  3. Pour cold water over the meat.

Bake and finish

  1. Line the edges of the dish with pie crust and cover with more crust.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

  3. Once cooked, pour in a little stock or meat jelly.

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 + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together469 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Parsley + meattop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,040 recipes

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

  5. White pepper + meattop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together363 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Provides the meat that becomes tender and rich during slow baking.
Pie crust
Encloses the meat, trapping steam and moisture so the filling stays juicy.
Stock or meat jelly
Adds savory depth and body to the gravy once the pie is cooked.

The step that matters

Pouring in the cold water before baking. Cold water added to the raw meat helps create gravy as the meat cooks and releases juices, and the crust keeps steam in, so the meat stays moist rather than drying out.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, parsley, meat):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, parsley, meat. 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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