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House-lamb Steaks, White

Stewed lamb steaks in milk and water, flavored with lemon peel, salt, pepper, mace, veal gravy, cream, flour, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

House-lamb Steaks, White

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the lamb

  1. Stew the house lamb steaks in milk and water until very tender.

  2. Add a bit of lemon peel, salt, pepper, and mace.

Make the gravy

  1. Prepare veal gravy and place the steaks into it.

  2. Mix mushroom, cream, and flour; shake the steaks in this mixture.

  3. Stir and heat until hot but do not boil.

  4. Just before serving, add a few white mushrooms.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Lamb + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

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

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

House-lamb steaks
Provide the main meat, which becomes very tender from long, gentle stewing.
Milk
Gently tenderizes the lamb and contributes to the mild, creamy character of the dish.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, giving it a smooth, velvety texture.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture so it coats the steaks and helps form the gravy.
White mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a soft, meaty texture to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Stir and heat until hot but do not boil. Boiling a cream-based sauce can cause it to separate or curdle and can make the thickened sauce grainy. Gentle heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, milk, lemon, pepper, veal, cream, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, milk, lemon, pepper, veal, cream, flour. 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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