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Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Olives, Bread, Pine Nuts & Herbs

Roasting a joint of lamb is still one of the most nostalgic times for me. A thousand pictures go through my head just thinking about my old man slicing lamb on a Sunday. This brilliant roast lamb dish uses Italian staples to make a delicious stuffing – it's nice to get all the herbs in the ingredients list, but if you can only get hold of a couple, don't worry. Try to buy the lamb from your own butcher or a supermarket with a qualified butcher's section. Tell them you want a nice leg of lamb, preferably organic, with the H-bone and thigh-bone tunnel-boned and removed. This sounds complicated but it's just butchers' jargon. It means the top half of the leg has the bone removed leaving just the ankle bone, allowing you to stuff it. For the veg, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, fennel and parsnips are all good.

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Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Olives, Bread, Pine Nuts & Herbs

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 ↓

Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Olives, Bread, Pine Nuts & Herbs

Serves 8

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1492Calories
76 gProtein
67 gFat
144 gCarbs

Counts 17 of 18 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 17 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Lamb100g cooked294
Anchovy100g210
Pine Nut1 oz (28g)191
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Olive1 large (4g)4
Rosemary1 tsp dried (1.2g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Peppermintnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By jamieoliver. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Oregano + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together791 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Garlic + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,756 recipes

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

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

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, clove, parsley, oregano, thyme, anchovy, bread):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, clove, parsley, oregano, thyme, anchovy, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.