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Roast Leg and Loin of Lamb

A roasted leg and loin of lamb seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, served with a pan gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,165 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Roast Leg and Loin of Lamb

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wipe the leg of lamb with a damp cloth.

  2. Place the lamb on a meat rack and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Set the lamb in a dripping pan.

Roast

  1. Roast the lamb in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 1.5 hours, basting every 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the lamb from the pan when done.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Add flour and hot water to the pan.

  2. Let the mixture boil for about 3 minutes.

  3. Serve the lamb in a gravy bowl.

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

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

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lamb + flourtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb leg
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that is roasted and served.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a gravy as it boils with the liquid.
Hot water
Mixes with the pan drippings and flour to form a thinner gravy.

The step that matters

Basting the lamb every 15 minutes. Regular basting spoons drippings over the surface, keeping the meat moist and helping the outside brown during the long roast.

“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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