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Lamb’s Feet, a LA Poulette

Lamb's feet braised in blanc sauce with lemon juice, mushrooms, and sauce à la Poulette, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lamb’s Feet, a LA Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. Remove the shank-bones from the lamb's feet without tearing the covering.

  2. Scald the feet in boiling water for 5 minutes, then immerse in cold water.

  3. Wipe and singe the feet over a charcoal flame.

  4. Rub the feet with lemon juice and braise in blanc sauce for about 1 hour.

  5. Drain on a cloth, trim the extremities, and make an incision in the hoof to remove the tuft of wool.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the feet in a stewpan with button mushrooms and enough sauce à la Poulette to warm them.

  2. Toss over the stove until warm, then serve neatly with a border of fleurons or croutons.

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. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together450 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + mushroomtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb's feet
Provide the gelatinous skin and connective tissue that give the dish its body and silky texture.
Blanc sauce
Braising liquid that keeps the feet moist and coats them with a light, creamy flavour.
Lemon juice
Acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the feet and sauces.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a tender bite to the finished dish.
Sauce à la poulette
Enriches the dish with a smooth, savoury coating that warms the feet and mushrooms.

The step that matters

Braising the feet in blanc sauce for about 1 hour. Too little time leaves the connective tissue firm and chewy, while overcooking can make the delicate skin fall apart. Gentle, steady simmering turns collagen into gelatin, giving the tender, silky texture this dish depends on.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, sauce, mushroom, bread. 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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