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Larded Cantons of Lamb

A lamb shoulder stuffed with forcemeat, larded with strips of fat, baked and served with olives, mushrooms, and brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,571 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Larded Cantons of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the shoulders of lamb from the inside without breaking the skin.

  2. Stuff the lamb with your chosen forcemeat or stuffing.

  3. Lard the lamb with lardoons and cover with buttered paper.

  4. Truss the stuffed lamb in the shape of ducks.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake or roast the lamb until cooked through.

  2. Garnish with olives and button mushrooms heated in brown mushroom sauce.

  3. Remove the strings before serving and accompany with brown gravy.

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. Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Lamb + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together450 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulders of small lamb
Forms the main meat and carries the stuffing, providing the body of the dish.
Forcemeat or stuffing
Adds moisture and flavour inside the meat as it cooks.
Lardoons
Strips of fat that baste the lean lamb, adding moisture and richness as they melt.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, savoury texture to the garnish.

The step that matters

Bake or roast the lamb until cooked through. The stuffed joint is thick and the centre cooks slowly, so it can stay underdone inside while the outside browns. Cooking until fully done is needed for safety, and the tied shape helps the meat cook evenly.

“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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