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Family Stew of Lamb and Peas

A hearty lamb stew with peas, mint, and tomato‑sauce‑soaked toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Family Stew of Lamb and Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the lamb

  1. Fry the sliced onion in dripping or butter until brown.

  2. Strain the fat back into the pan.

  3. Dredge the lamb with flour.

  4. Fry the lamb for 3 minutes, turning to sear both sides.

  5. Transfer the meat and fat to a saucepan.

Stew

  1. Add stock or butter and water to the saucepan.

  2. Cover and stew for 1 hour or until the lamb is tender.

  3. Add the green peas and mint leaves.

  4. Cover and cook until the peas are tender but not breaking.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Prepare a broad dish lined with slices of toast soaked in tomato sauce.

  2. Using a skimmer, transfer the meat and peas to the toast and keep hot.

  3. Thicken the gravy left in the pot with butter rolled in browned flour.

  4. Season the gravy.

  5. Boil the gravy.

  6. Pour the gravy over the stew.

  7. Let it stand for 1 minute 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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Peas + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  4. Mint + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together828 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Lean meat that becomes tender and flavourful during slow stewing.
Flour
Coats the lamb so it browns well and helps thicken the gravy.
Onion
Browned in fat to add sweetness and savoury depth to the stew.
Green peas
Add sweetness and a soft, tender texture to the finished stew.
Browned flour
Adds a nutty, toasted flavour and thickens the gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the peas until tender but not breaking. Peas cook quickly and overcooked peas soften and fall apart, making the stew mushy and cloudy. Checking them early keeps their shape and bright colour.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, butter, flour, peas, tomato, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, butter, flour, peas, tomato, 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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