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Shoulder of Lamb En Epigramme

A lamb shoulder stew with parsley, thyme, shallots, mushrooms, seasoned sauce, and lemon pickle, finished by broiling the fan-shaped shoulder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Shoulder of Lamb En Epigramme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Boil the shoulder of lamb until three-quarters cooked, then let it cool.

  2. Remove the blade-bone, keeping the skin intact in a fan shape.

Make the stew

  1. Cut the meat into strips and mix with parsley, thyme, shallots, mushrooms, seasoned sauce, and lemon pickle.

  2. Stew the mixture gently for 15 minutes.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the fan of the shoulder and the blade-bone, then serve over the stew.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of lamb
Provides the main meat, which is cut into strips and gently stewed.
Shallots
Add a mild, savoury onion flavour to the stewed mixture.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the stew.
Seasoned sauce (cullis)
Adds body and savoury richness that binds the stewed mixture together.
Lemon pickle
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich lamb and sauce.

The step that matters

Broil the fan of the shoulder and the blade-bone. The skin is the crisp, browned element of the dish. Broiling it at high heat browns and crisps the fat and surface, while the meat underneath stays moist. Watch it closely, because the thin skin can scorch before it crisps.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, parsley, thyme, shallot, mushroom, sauce):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, parsley, thyme, shallot, mushroom, sauce. 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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