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Quarter of Lamb Forced

A quarter of lamb stuffed with suet, oysters, anchovy, onion, herbs, lemon peel, nutmeg, served with a sauce of wine, gravy, oysters, mushrooms, and pickle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 896 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Quarter of Lamb Forced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Cut a long slit in the leg of lamb and remove the meat without damaging the front.

  2. Chop the meat with marrow, beef suet, oysters, anchovy, onion, herbs, lemon peel, mace, and nutmeg.

  3. Stuff the leg with the mixture.

  4. Sew the leg shut.

  5. Rub the leg with egg yolks.

Roast and cook the steaks

  1. Roast the leg for 1 hour, basting with butter.

  2. Cut the loin into steaks.

  3. Season the steaks with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and lemon peel.

  4. Fry the steaks in fresh butter until brown.

  5. Pour out the butter.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add white wine, strong gravy, oysters with liquor, mushrooms, pickle, and flour mixed with butter.

  2. Stir until thick.

  3. Place the leg of lamb in a dish.

  4. Arrange the loin around it.

  5. Pour the sauce over.

  6. Garnish with lemon.

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. Lamb + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together896 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Lamb + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb leg
Forms the main roasted joint that holds the stuffing while cooking.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during roasting.
Egg yolks
Coat the outside of the leg, helping it brown and develop a glossy surface.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when mixed with butter and stirred into the liquid.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour to the stuffing and the sauce.
Strong gravy
Provides the savoury meaty base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until thick. Flour mixed with butter must be stirred continuously as it heats so it thickens smoothly without lumps or a raw floury taste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, meat, beef, oyster, anchovy, onion, lemon):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, meat, beef, oyster, anchovy, onion, lemon. 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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