Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Breast of Lamb

A lamb breast roasted over an open flame, served with mint sauce and optional stew with vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Broiled Breast of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grill and lamb

  1. Heat a grill over a clear fire.

  2. Grease the grill with a little fat.

  3. Place the breast of lamb on the grill.

  4. Cook until well done on one side.

  5. Turn the breast of lamb.

  6. Finish cooking the other side.

  7. Warm the butter. Mix in a little pepper and salt.

  8. Spread the butter mixture over the meat.

  9. Serve the joint on a hot dish with mint sauce in a sauceboat.

Simmer the lamb with vegetables

  1. Place the sliced vegetables and herbs in a stewpan.

  2. Lay the breast of lamb on top.

  3. Sprinkle with salt.

  4. Add enough water to cover.

  5. Bring the stew to a boil.

  6. Reduce heat.

  7. Simmer until the meat is tender enough to remove the bones.

  8. Drain the meat.

  9. Season with salt and pepper.

Coat and broil

  1. Dip the meat in beaten egg.

  2. Dip the meat in breadcrumbs.

  3. Broil both sides until done.

  4. Serve on a hot dish with rich brown gravy and tomato 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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + turniptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 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

Breast of lamb
Provides the rich, fatty meat that becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown during broiling.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the simmering liquid.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth to the simmering liquid.
Egg (in the method)
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the meat.
Breadcrumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp, browned crust when broiled.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender enough to remove the bones. Connective tissue in breast of lamb breaks down slowly in gentle simmering, so the meat becomes tender. Boiling hard can toughen and break up the meat, so keep the liquid at a gentle simmer for the full time.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, pepper, sauce, carrot, turnip, onion. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes