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Breast of Lamb with Bechamel

A lamb breast cooked with herbs, shallots, anchovy essence, lemon, and topped with breadcrumbs, then broiled and served over béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Breast of Lamb with Bechamel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove the underbone from the breast of lamb.

  2. Blanch the lamb and place it in a stewpan with parsley, thyme, shallots, butter, salt, pepper, essence of anchovies, and lemon juice.

  3. Simmer over low heat until nearly done.

  4. Transfer the lamb to a dish and let it cool slightly.

Coat and finish

  1. Coat the lamb with beaten egg and breadcrumbs.

  2. Broil the lamb over a low flame until tender and nicely browned.

  3. Serve with béchamel sauce underneath.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast
Provides the meat that becomes tender through slow simmering and is then browned.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the lamb and sets when heated.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the lamb under the broiler.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour into the lamb during simmering.
Shallots
Add a mild aromatic sweetness that flavours the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Broil the coated lamb over a low flame. Breadcrumbs and egg brown quickly and can scorch before the lamb is heated through. Low, even heat lets the coating brown while the meat becomes tender inside.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, parsley, thyme, butter, pepper, lemon, egg):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, parsley, thyme, butter, pepper, lemon, egg. 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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