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Leg of Lamb, Larded

A leg of lamb larded with butter and lard, roasted with pickled onions and tomato ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Leg of Lamb, Larded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Wash the lamb in cold water and dry it with a linen cloth.

  2. Make deep incisions with a sharp knife and insert the pickled onions.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then dredge with flour.

Brown and cook

  1. Heat butter and lard in a Dutch oven until hot enough to brown.

  2. Brown the lamb on both sides, basting often with hot water.

  3. Cover the oven to retain steam and cook slowly for one hour.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. After lifting the lamb, add browned flour and hot water to the gravy.

  2. Boil for five minutes, stirring well, then add tomato ketchup and serve.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of young lamb
The main cut; its fat and connective tissue soften slowly during long, gentle cooking.
Flour
Dredging coats the surface so it browns well and helps thicken the gravy.
Butter and lard
Fats that conduct heat for browning the meat and add rich flavour.
Browned flour
Adds a toasted, nutty colour and flavour and thickens the gravy.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity, deepening the colour and flavour of the gravy.

The step that matters

Brown the lamb on both sides. Browning through the Maillard reaction builds deep flavour and colour; if the fat is not hot enough or the meat is wet, it steams instead and stays pale.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, pepper, flour, butter, ketchup):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, pepper, flour, butter, ketchup. 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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