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Breast of Lamb and Cucumbers

A lamb breast stewed and grilled, served over cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Breast of Lamb and Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut off the chine bone from the breast of lamb.

  2. Set the breast to stew with a pint of gravy.

  3. When the bones can be drawn out, grill the breast on a gridiron.

  4. Lay the grilled breast in a dish on top of nicely stewed cucumbers.

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. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through stewing and then browns on the grill.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour while the lamb stews until tender.
Cucumbers
Stew into a soft, moist base that sits under the lamb and absorbs its juices.

The step that matters

Grilling after stewing. The breast must be stewed until the bones can be drawn out before grilling. Grilling too early leaves the meat tough and stringy, since collagen only softens with long, moist heat. Grilling afterwards adds browning without drying the meat.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

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