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Braised Lamb

A slow-cooked lamb dish braised with onion, potato, celery, carrot, and optional mushroom catsup or Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braised Lamb

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.

Brown the lamb

  1. In a braising pan, heat a little fat or drippings.

  2. Fry the small onion until softened.

  3. Add the piece of lamb and brown on all sides.

  4. Remove the lamb and slice the raw potato, celery, and carrot into the pan.

  5. Add mushroom catsup or Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

Braise and serve

  1. Replace the lamb on a meat rack and half cover with boiling water.

  2. Cover tightly and roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven until very tender.

  3. Let the liquid cook down and pour over the lamb before serving.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Browning and slow cooking turn the tough meat very tender and flavorful.
Onion
Softening in fat builds a sweet, savory base for the braising liquid.
Potato
Starch thickens the cooking liquid slightly as it breaks down.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the braising liquid.
Celery
Contributes savory aroma and flavor to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Brown the lamb on all sides. Browning creates Maillard flavor compounds on the meat's surface that the long braise cannot produce on its own. Pale, unbrowned meat yields a flatter-tasting sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, potato, celery, carrot, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, potato, celery, carrot, mushroom, pepper. 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.

More braised lamb recipes

Shoulder 9Breast 8Loin 6Liver 3Shanks 3 See all 3 →

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