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Lamb, Turkey

Spit-roasted lamb and turkey with a thickened jus and bread stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

  1. Wash the lamb well and rub coarse sea salt on it.

  2. Suspend the lamb on a spit over a large fire, turning it every minute or two.

  3. Place a dripping pan underneath to catch the juices.

Make the gravy

  1. About 15 minutes before the lamb is done, take the juices from the dripping pan and place the juices in a skillet.

  2. Mix some flour with water to create a thin batter.

  3. Stir the batter into the juices to thicken.

  4. Let the mixture stew until the lamb is done.

Finish and roast the turkey

  1. Ten minutes before serving, sprinkle a little flour on the lamb.

  2. Turn the lamb constantly to achieve a light brown color.

  3. Do not sprinkle flour on the turkey.

  4. If the turkey is poor, baste it with butter or bacon.

  5. Stuff the turkey with stale bread mixed with butter, salt, and pepper, and tie the wings close to its side.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Provides the main meat, whose drippings form the base of the gravy.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the juices into a gravy and, dusted on the lamb, helps it brown.
Stale bread
Absorbs butter and juices in the stuffing, keeping the turkey moist and giving body to the filling.
Butter or bacon fat
Adds fat that enriches flavour and helps keep the turkey from drying out while basting.

The step that matters

Turning the lamb constantly near the end. Flour sprinkled on the lamb browns through the Maillard reaction, but it can scorch if the meat sits still over the fire. Constant turning gives an even light brown colour.

“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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