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Lamb Broth with Ravioli

A lamb broth soup served with chicken-filled ravioli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Lamb Broth with Ravioli

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the lamb, bones, water, salt, pepper, turnip, parsley, and onions sautéed in butter in a large pot.

  2. Boil slowly for 3 hours.

  3. Strain and remove the fat.

  4. This can be made a day in advance.

Make the ravioli

  1. Finely mince the chicken and season with salt, pepper, and mace for the ravioli. Mix in the bread crumbs and bind with the beaten eggs and melted butter.

  2. Divide the pastry into two portions and roll one thinly into an oblong shape.

  3. Place teaspoonfuls of the filling at equal distances on the pastry, moisten the spaces with water, and cover with the second rolled pastry.

  4. Cut through both layers and press the edges together.

Cook and serve

  1. Drop the ravioli into boiling salted water and cook for 10 minutes.

  2. Serve the ravioli in a soup tureen and pour the boiling broth over them.

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. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Pepper + turniptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of lamb
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Bones
Release gelatin and savory flavour into the broth, adding body and richness.
Chicken
Forms the savory, tender filling inside the ravioli.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the chicken filling so it holds together.
Eggs
Bind the filling together and help it set when cooked.
Pastry
Forms the thin outer wrapper that encloses the filling and holds its shape.

The step that matters

Removing the fat after straining. Fat floats on the broth and, if left in, makes it greasy and cloudy; skimming or chilling the broth lets the fat solidify and lift off cleanly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, turnip, parsley, onion, butter, meat. 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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