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Neck, or Breast of Lamb

A boiled lamb neck served with melted butter, parsley, vegetables, and small potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Neck, or Breast of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the neck or breast of lamb.

  2. Place the lamb in a pot with cold water.

Cook

  1. Bring to a gentle boil and skim off any scum.

  2. Boil for about 30 minutes, starting from when it reaches a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter and parsley, alongside vegetables and small potatoes.

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. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Peas + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Lamb + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Parsley + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb neck or breast
Provides the meat and bones that give the stew its savory, rich flavor as it simmers.
Butter
Melted over the finished dish, it adds richness and a smooth, mellow flavor.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum after the boil begins. The scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy and greasy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, parsley, butter, potato):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, parsley, butter, potato. 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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