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Lamb Broth

A clear broth made by simmering lamb pieces, onion, salt, peppercorns, and optional rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lamb Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cover the lamb pieces with cold water and let them stand for 30 minutes.

  2. Place the pot on the stove and heat gradually.

  3. Add salt, peppercorns, and the onion when heating.

Simmer and strain

  1. Once it begins to boil, cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  2. Do not skim until the broth is strained.

  3. Strain the broth and season to taste.

  4. Skim off all the fat before serving.

  5. Add a little well-cooked rice if desired.

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. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

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

  3. Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,481 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean lamb meat
Provides the main flavour and body of the broth as it simmers.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skim off all the fat before serving. Fat that is not removed sits on the surface and makes the broth greasy. Skimming only after straining keeps the fat from being removed too early, while the broth is still cooking and clouding.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

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