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Roast Hind-quarter of Lamb

A roasted hind‑quarter of lamb served with horseradish sauce and watercresses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and watercress share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 66 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Roast Hind-quarter of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Saw off the knuckle-bone from the hind-quarter of lamb.

Roast

  1. Roast the lamb before a sharp, even fire.

  2. Baste frequently to keep the meat moist.

Serve

  1. Once ready, place the lamb on a dish and garnish with watercresses.

  2. Serve horseradish or mint sauce in a separate dish.

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. Horseradish + watercresstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Horseradish + saucetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lamb + watercresstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

  4. Sauce + watercresstop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together295 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together925 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Hind-quarter of lamb
Forms the main meat; its fat renders during roasting, adding flavour and juiciness to the meat.
Horseradish sauce
Its sharp pungency cuts through the richness of the roasted lamb fat.

The step that matters

Roast before a sharp, even fire. A sharp, even heat browns the outside quickly while keeping the inside tender. Uneven or weak heat can leave the meat grey, dry or unevenly cooked.

Swap the horseradish

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

  1. Horseradishthe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits less well
  4. Lettucefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, sauce, watercress. 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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