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Lamb — Con Tinned

A lamb stew with Jerusalem artichokes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, mint, and brown sauce, garnished with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lamb — Con Tinned

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Cut the lamb into moderate-sized pieces.

  2. In a shallow stewpan, melt a little butter and fry the lamb pieces until nicely browned.

  3. Peel and quarter the Jerusalem artichokes, carrots, and onions, then fry them for a few minutes.

  4. Pour in a little broth, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and boil until the broth reduces to a glaze.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add the halved tomatoes and sprig of mint to the lamb.

  2. When the moisture from the tomatoes has evaporated, the lamb should be done.

  3. Pour in 2 cups of brown sauce and stir over the heat for five minutes.

  4. Transfer to a hot dish, garnish with croutons of toast, and serve.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Browning gives savory flavor, and slow cooking tenderizes the meat into a moist stew.
Butter
Fat carries heat for browning the lamb and adds richness to the stew.
Tomatoes
Acidity and moisture; their liquid evaporates, concentrating flavor in the stew.
Brown sauce
Body and savory depth that thickens the stew's liquid and coats the meat.
Jerusalem artichokes
Starchy vegetable that softens and adds earthy sweetness to the stew.

The step that matters

Browning the lamb. Browning the meat well before adding liquid creates deep flavors through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or stirring too early steams the lamb instead, leaving it pale and bland.

Swap the jerusalem artichoke

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Jerusalem artichokethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, carrot, onion, pepper, tomato, mint. 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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