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Quarter of Lamb Roasted

A roasted quarter of lamb seasoned with butter, chives, parsley, and fine herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Quarter of Lamb Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Roast

  1. Lard the lamb underneath and place it on the spit.

  2. Wrap buttered paper around the lamb.

  3. When nearly done, remove the paper to brown the lamb.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix butter with chopped chives, parsley, and fine herbs.

  2. Serve the herb mixture under the lamb.

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. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Lamb + chivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + chivetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Forms the main body of the dish and browns as its surface dries and caramelises.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the herbs, giving the serving mixture a smooth texture.
Chopped chives
Adds a mild onion-like aroma to the herb butter.
Chopped parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and a clean flavour to the herb butter.

The step that matters

Remove the paper to brown the lamb. The paper shields the meat and keeps it moist while it cooks. Browning needs a dry surface and high heat, so removing the paper too early dries the meat, while leaving it on too long prevents browning.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, parsley. 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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