Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Lamb, Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lamb
Wash the lamb well and rub coarse sea salt on it.
Suspend the lamb on a spit over a large fire, turning every minute or two.
Place a dripping pan underneath to catch the juices.
Make the gravy
About 15 minutes before the lamb is done, take the juices from the pan and mix in a little water if it's very hot.
Stir in flour to make a thin batter and add it to the juices to thicken.
Let it stew until the lamb is done.
Finish and serve
Ten minutes before serving, sprinkle a little flour on the lamb and turn constantly for a light brown color.
For the turkey, do not sprinkle flour. Baste with butter or bacon if it's poor.
Stuff the turkey with stale bread mixed with butter, salt, and pepper, and tie the wings close to its side.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,165 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Lamb
- Is the main meat, cooked slowly over the fire while turning for even heat.
- Flour
- Thickens the juices into a gravy and helps the lamb brown lightly at the end.
- Stale bread
- Forms a moist, absorbent stuffing that soaks up butter and juices inside the turkey.
- Butter
- Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a rich, moist surface on the turkey.
The step that matters
Adding flour to the lamb near the end. Flour sprinkled on meat browns quickly over direct fire, so turning constantly is needed to get a light brown color without scorching.
“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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