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Shouldee of Lamb Brai8et

A braised lamb shoulder wrapped in bacon and seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Shouldee of Lamb Brai8et

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove the blade bone from the shoulder of lamb.

  2. Season the bacon strips with pepper, salt, and parsley.

  3. Use a larding needle to insert the bacon into the meat.

  4. Roll the meat and tie it with string.

Braise

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan over low heat.

  2. Add the meat and cook until golden, stirring occasionally.

  3. Pour in the water or broth and add the onions and parsley.

  4. Simmer slowly until the onions are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat, discard the string, and place it on a dish with the onions around it.

  2. Skim the fat from the cooking liquid and reduce it to a thin glaze.

  3. Pour the glaze over the meat and serve. Add mushrooms 10 minutes before serving 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Shoulder of lamb
The main cut; slow simmering turns its connective tissue tender and moist.
Bacon strips
Larded through the meat, they add fat and savory flavour as they render.
Butter
Browns the meat at the start and adds richness to the cooking liquid.
Button onions
Soften during simmering and add sweetness that mellows the braising liquid.
Water or broth
Forms the braising liquid that cooks the meat gently and becomes the glaze.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until the onions are tender. Gentle, low heat lets collagen in the lamb break down into gelatin for tender meat. Boiling hard toughens the muscle fibres and can leave the liquid too reduced.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, parsley, butter, 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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