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Lamb, Shoulder Of, Braised

A braised lamb shoulder with bacon, vegetables, and a brown roux sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lamb, Shoulder Of, Braised

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lamb

  1. Bone the shoulder of lamb.

  2. Season the shoulder with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Roll the meat tightly and bind it securely with string.

  4. Cut the bacon into strips about 2 inches long and insert the bacon strips into the meat in close rows.

Braise

  1. Melt 1½ oz of butter in a large braising pan.

  2. Add the sliced vegetables to the pan and place the meat on top of the vegetables.

  3. Cover the meat closely and cook gently for 20 minutes.

  4. Add the bouquet garni, peppercorns, and stock to nearly cover the vegetables.

  5. Cover with buttered paper and the lid.

  6. Braise in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2 hours.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan.

  2. Fry the shallots slightly.

  3. Add the flour and cook until it turns a nut‑brown color.

  4. Remove the strings from the meat.

  5. Brush the meat with reduced stock to glaze.

  6. Crisp the bacon in the oven for a few minutes.

  7. Strain the stock and increase it to ½ pint.

  8. Pour the stock over the brown roux and stir until it boils.

  9. Add the parsley and season to taste.

  10. Simmer for 2‑3 minutes before serving in a sauceboat.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Shallot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb shoulder
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle braising.
Larding bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the lean meat as it cooks.
Butter
Carries fat for browning the vegetables and building the roux.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as a roux, and nut-brown cooking adds toasted flavour.
Stock
Provides the braising liquid and the base of the sauce.
Onions
Sweeten as they cook slowly, adding body to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux to nut-brown. Flour must cook long enough to lose its raw taste and gain toasted flavour, but if it burns it turns bitter. Stirring steadily over gentle heat keeps it even, and the stock should be added once it has reached the right colour.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, flour, shallot, parsley, carrot, turnip. 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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