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Roast Quarter of Lamb

A roasted quarter of lamb seasoned with salt pork, bread crumbs, parsley, vinegar, mint, egg yolk, mushroom catsup, served with green peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,198 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Roast Quarter of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Lard the quarter of lamb slightly with salt pork.

  3. Sprinkle the lamb with bread crumbs and finely-chopped parsley.

Roast and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the stock gravy, vinegar, chopped mint, egg yolk, and mushroom catsup.

  2. Pour the sauce over the lamb and roast in the oven for a few moments.

  3. Serve with green peas boiled with a little bunch of mint.

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. Parsley + minttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,198 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Lamb + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together623 recipes

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

  3. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Quarter of lamb
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the savory flavor of the meat.
Salt pork
Adds fat and richness, keeping the lean lamb moist as it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Form a crust on the surface and soak up the juices and sauce.
Egg yolk
Helps bind the sauce and give it a smoother, thicker body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the fat and sauce.
Mushroom catsup
Contributes deep, savory umami flavor to the sauce.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pork, bread, parsley, vinegar, egg, mushroom):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pork, bread, parsley, vinegar, egg, mushroom. 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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