Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Hashed Lamb, and Broiled Blade Bone
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the lamb
Score the blade bone and season it with salt and pepper.
Place it on a tart dish, drizzle with oiled butter, and warm it in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
Cut the remaining lamb into small pieces.
Make the hash
Heat the coulis in a saucepan, then add mushroom ketchup and shallot vinegar.
Add the lamb to the coulis, ensuring it doesn't boil, and keep it warm by the stove.
Brown and serve
Remove the blade bone from the oven and brown it on a grill.
Serve the hash on a dish with the blade bone in the center, garnished with sliced gherkins.
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.
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Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,898 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,374 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Blade bone from the shoulder of lamb
- Forms the centerpiece and, once browned, gives the dish its main roasted flavor.
- Lamb
- Provides the meaty body of the hash, with its rich flavor carried by the sauce.
- Coulis
- Forms the saucy base that binds the hash and carries its flavor.
- Oiled butter
- Adds fat and richness, helping the bone warm through and brown evenly.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the sauce.
- Shallot vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich lamb and sauce.
The step that matters
Keep the lamb from boiling in the coulis. Boiling toughens meat proteins and can make small lamb pieces dry and chewy, so the hash should be kept just below a simmer and warm.
Swap the shallot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, butter, mushroom, ketchup, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Shallotthe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- Spinachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, butter, mushroom, ketchup, vinegar. 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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