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Raised Lamb Pies

A pastry pie filled with lamb and forcemeat, topped with pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Raised Lamb Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

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

  2. In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the lamb slices, lemon juice, pepper, and salt; cook until browned.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assemble the pies

  1. Roll out the pastry to about ⅛ inch thick.

  2. Cut out circles the size of a large tea cup.

  3. Place a layer of forcemeat in the bottom of each pastry circle.

  4. Add the cooked lamb on top of the forcemeat.

  5. Cover with another pastry circle, seal the edges, and bake for 30 minutes.

  6. Remove from the oven, take off the top, and pour in brown sauce.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Lemon + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Provides the main meat filling and savory flavor once browned.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps brown the lamb in the pan.
Forcemeat (veal)
Forms a moist, tender layer beneath the lamb inside the pastry.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and forms the crisp, baked shell of each pie.

The step that matters

Browning the lamb. Lamb cooked only until grey, not browned, lacks the Maillard-driven savory flavor and color that the finished pies depend on. Cooking in a single layer over medium heat helps the surface brown rather than steam.

“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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