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A Shoulder of Lamb Larded

A stuffed lamb shoulder filled with force‑meat, trimmings, herbs, and vegetables, baked and served with sorrel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

A Shoulder of Lamb Larded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove the blade from the shoulder of lamb and fill it with force‑meat.

  2. Sew it up with twine and lard the outside.

Braise

  1. In a saucepan, combine meat trimmings, onion, celery, herbs, and carrots.

  2. Place the lamb on top of the mixture and cover it with fat bacon.

  3. Add 1 quart of second stock and simmer gently for 2 hours.

  4. Place lighted charcoal on the lid to raise the bacon.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooked, transfer the lamb to the oven for a few minutes.

  2. Serve with sorrel sauce on the dish and then the lamb.

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. Celery + sorreltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + sorreltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of lamb
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, gentle simmering.
Fat bacon
Covers the lamb and bastes it with melting fat as it cooks, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
Second stock
Provides the cooking liquid that gently braises the lamb and forms the base for the sauce.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour to the braising liquid as it cooks down.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the braising liquid as it cooks down.
Carrots
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2 hours. A gentle simmer keeps the liquid below a rapid boil, so the connective tissue in the lamb softens slowly without the meat toughening or drying out.

Swap the sorrel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, meat, onion, celery, carrot, sauce):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Sorrelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, meat, onion, celery, carrot, sauce. 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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