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Lamb Roasted

A hind quarter of lamb roasted after being stuffed with breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, butter, sage, and summer savory.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lamb Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Prepare the hind quarter of lamb by stuffing it with bread crumbs, pepper, salt, butter, sage, and summer savory.

  2. Sew the flap over the stuffing to keep it in place.

  3. If desired, add oysters or onions to the stuffing.

  4. Rub the lamb with flour, salt, and pepper.

Roast and serve

  1. Place a piece of butter the size of an egg and a cup of boiling water in the roasting pan for basting.

  2. Roast the lamb as you would roast beef.

  3. Serve with green peas and crab apple or lemon 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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hind quarter of lamb
Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the stuffing and providing the meat that cooks through.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat from the stuffing, helping keep the filling moist and holding its shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the meat brown and stay moist.
Flour
Coats the outside of the lamb, helping form a surface that browns during roasting.
Boiling water
Creates steam and liquid in the pan for basting, keeping the roast moist.

The step that matters

Sewing the flap over the stuffing. If the flap is not sealed well, the stuffing can leak out and the bread crumbs and juices can be lost during roasting, leaving the filling dry and the meat unevenly cooked.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, bread, pepper, butter, flour, oyster. 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 roasted lamb recipes

Quarter 11Shoulder 11Forequarter 9Saddle 6Hind Quarter 4Ribs 4 See all 9 →

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