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Lamb Fricassee

A stew of lamb pieces browned in drippings, simmered with onion, green peas or rice, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lamb Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Cut the lamb into small pieces.

  2. Dredge the pieces with salt and flour.

  3. Brown the lamb in drippings.

  4. Finely chop the onion.

  5. Brown the onion in the fat.

  6. Add the onion to the meat in a stewpan.

Simmer and finish

  1. Cover with boiling water.

  2. Simmer until the bones slip out.

  3. Remove the bones.

  4. Strain the liquid.

  5. Skim off the fat.

  6. Bring the liquid to a boil again.

  7. Add the meat, pepper, and salt.

  8. Add the green peas or cooked rice.

  9. Simmer for fifteen minutes.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  4. Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 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 through long simmering until the bones release.
Flour
Coats the meat so it browns well and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Onion
Browned in fat to add savory, sweet depth to the stew's flavor.
Green peas or cooked rice
Adds bulk and substance, turning the stew into a more filling dish.

The step that matters

Brown the lamb in drippings. Browning builds deep savory flavor through the Maillard reaction. Meat that is crowded or wet in the pan steams instead, leaving it pale and bland.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, flour, pepper):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, flour, pepper. 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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