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Lamb

A lamb stew cooked in bacon fat and butter, finished with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the lamb in clear water and wipe it with a cloth.

  2. Flour the lamb pieces.

Make the stew

  1. In a pot, melt the bacon fat and butter, then add the parsley and cook for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the lamb, onion, lemon juice, pepper, and salt, then simmer for 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolks and stir them into the gravy, then cook for 3 more minutes while stirring.

  2. Dish and serve.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 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

Lamb
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during long, slow simmering.
Bacon fat and butter
Fat that carries flavor and adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the gravy.
Egg yolks
Thicken the gravy as they set with gentle heat and add richness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savory flavors of the stew.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory sweetness as it softens in the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring the beaten egg yolks into the gravy. Egg yolk proteins set at gentle heat and can curdle or turn grainy if they hit hot liquid too fast. Stirring constantly while cooking gently lets the yolks thicken the gravy smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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