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Braised Loin of Lamb

A lamb loin braised with bacon, green onions, carrots, herbs, mace, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Braised Loin of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large pan, layer the bacon and place the loin of lamb on top.

  3. Add the green onions, carrots, and savory herbs around the meat.

  4. Sprinkle the pounded mace over the lamb and season with salt.

  5. Pour the stock into the pan and cover it tightly.

Braise

  1. Cook in the oven for about 1.5 to 2 hours, until tender.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lamb + carrottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together724 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Loin of lamb
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as its connective tissue breaks down during slow braising.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavour that melts into the braising liquid and seasons the meat.
Stock
Provides the moist braising liquid that gently cooks the lamb and keeps it from drying out.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the braising liquid as they cook down.
Green onions
Contribute mild onion aroma that infuses the stock and the meat during the long cook.

The step that matters

Cover the pan tightly before the oven. A tight lid traps steam so the liquid stays around the meat and the lamb cooks in moist heat. Without it, the stock can reduce too far and the surface can dry out over the long braise.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, carrot. 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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