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Hind Quarter Op Spring Lamb

A roasted hind quarter of spring lamb seasoned with coarse sea salt and covered with its own fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and mint work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 772 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hind Quarter Op Spring Lamb

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim the bone.

  2. Place the flank over the ribs to prevent overcooking.

  3. Securely fasten all parts together.

  4. Rub the salt over the meat.

  5. Cover the lamb with the thin fat.

Roast

  1. Place it in a dripping pan with water.

  2. Roast in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour, basting with its own drippings.

  3. Remove the fat.

  4. Cover the bone with paper ruffle.

Finish and serve

  1. Skim the grease from the drippings.

  2. Strain it over the lamb.

  3. Serve on a hot dish.

  4. Serve with mint sauce if desired.

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 + minttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together772 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together925 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Mint + saucetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb hind quarter
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy as it roasts slowly.
Thin fat from the lamb
Covers the meat during roasting, adding moisture and richness as it melts.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out moisture to flavour the surface.

The step that matters

Roasting and basting in the moderate oven. Roasting at a steady moderate heat cooks the thick joint through without drying the outside. Basting with the drippings keeps the surface moist and adds flavour, so the meat should be checked and basted rather than left unattended.

Swap the mint

The recipe marks mint as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, 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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