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Slewed Breast of Lamb

A lamb breast stew with peas, onion, mint, and a flour‑thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Slewed Breast of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Cut the lamb into small pieces, wash well in cold water, and place in a saucepan with 1 quart of cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim well, add salt, skim again, and then simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Make the stew

  1. Skim again, add the peas, and let simmer for another 30 minutes.

  2. Peel and chop the onion and mint, then add to the lamb along with pepper to taste.

  3. Mix the flour smoothly with a tablespoon of water and stir into the saucepan to thicken the gravy.

  4. Let it simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

  5. Remove excess grease, then serve the stew on a hot dish with the meat in the center and peas and gravy around.

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. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + minttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together772 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast or neck
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Green peas
Add sweetness and a soft texture to the stew.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Skimming the liquid. Skimming removes foam and fat that rise as the lamb cooks. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and stops the gravy from tasting greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, peas, mint, flour, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, peas, mint, flour, pepper. 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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