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Tureen of Lambs' Tails

A hearty soup made with lambs' tails, lean ham, fowls, onions, herbs, mace, butter, stock, asparagus peas, egg yolks, cream, and béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and quail share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Tureen of Lambs' Tails

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Layer the bottom of a stewpan with lean ham, then add the cut-up fowls, onions, herbs, and mace.

  2. Add the butter and place the stewpan on low heat for 1 hour, ensuring it doesn't catch at the bottom.

  3. Add the quails of stock and let it simmer for another hour without boiling.

  4. Strain the mixture and skim off the fat.

Prepare the lambs' tails

  1. Blanch the lambs' tails and place them in a white braise until very tender.

  2. Cut the tails into 2-inch lengths and set aside in a small soup pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil the asparagus peas in some of the stock from the fowls.

  2. Once cooked, add the asparagus peas and remaining stock to the lambs' tails and heat for a few minutes.

  3. Make a liaison by whisking together the egg yolks and boiled cream, then strain it.

  4. Combine the liaison with the béchamel sauce.

  5. Remove the soup from heat and stir in the liaison, keeping it on low heat until it begins to boil.

  6. If not serving immediately, place the soup pot in a stewpan of hot water on the side of the stove.

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. Lamb + quailtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together207 recipes

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

  4. Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  5. Quail + asparagustop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Lambs' tails
Provide the main meat, becoming tender during the long braise.
Egg yolks
Thicken the liaison and give the soup a richer, smoother body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the base as it cooks gently with the fowls.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the liaison, softening the soup's texture.
Béchamel sauce
Adds body and creaminess to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the liaison. Egg yolks can curdle if overheated. Keep the soup on low heat and do not let it boil hard once the liaison goes in, so it thickens smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, ham, onion, butter, quail, asparagus, peas):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, ham, onion, butter, quail, asparagus, peas. 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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