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Oassebole of Lamb Chops

A braised lamb chop dish with tomatoes, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and a seasoned gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Oassebole of Lamb Chops

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Trim the lamb chops and brown them in fat.

  2. Layer sliced tomatoes in the bottom of a casserole.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the browned chops, potato balls, button onions, and mushrooms on top.

  2. Pour in the seasoned stock or gravy.

  3. Top with another layer of sliced tomatoes, then season with salt, pepper, and sugar, and dot with butter.

  4. Cover the casserole and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2 hours.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Drain the gravy without disturbing the contents.

  2. Skim the fat, thicken the gravy with browned flour, and add lemon juice.

  3. Boil the gravy, then pour in sherry and return it to the casserole.

  4. Cover and bake for an additional 3 minutes before serving.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb chops
Lean meat that becomes tender during long, slow braising in the covered casserole.
Sliced tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, breaking down into the sauce as the casserole bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour across the top layer during baking.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the chops and vegetables.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a sharp, winey note to the finished gravy.
Stock or gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that gently braises the lamb and vegetables.

The step that matters

Browning the lamb chops. Searing the chops in fat before baking builds browned, savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction, which the long braise cannot create on its own.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, potato, mushroom, tomato, pepper, sugar, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, potato, mushroom, tomato, pepper, sugar, butter. 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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