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Shoulders of Lamb, Italian Way

A lamb shoulder stuffed with bacon, onion, mushrooms, parsley, breadcrumbs, and eggs, braised with vegetables and broth, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Shoulders of Lamb, Italian Way

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Bone the shoulders of lamb without removing the thin-end bone.

  2. Spread the shoulders on a table and season the inside.

  3. Mix bacon, onion, mushrooms, parsley, and bread crumbs in a bowl. Season the mixture and add the eggs; mix well.

Stuff and braise

  1. Stuff the shoulders with the mixture and sew them up.

  2. Place in a sauté pan with sliced vegetables and moisten with broth. Bring to a boil, then move the pan to the oven at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Braise the shoulders, basting frequently until done.

Finish and serve

  1. Reduce the stock to a half-glaze, remove the string, and serve. Pour a little tomato sauce and the cooking stock on the bottom of the dish.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb shoulders
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow braising.
Streaky bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the stuffing moist during braising.
Bread crumbs
Soaked and pressed, they absorb juices and help bind the stuffing.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when sliced.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savoury flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Braise the shoulders, basting frequently until done. Lamb shoulder is a tough cut rich in connective tissue. Slow, moist heat with regular basting breaks that tissue down gradually and keeps the meat from drying out, so it should be cooked until fully tender rather than rushed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, mushroom, parsley, bread, egg, pepper, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, mushroom, parsley, bread, egg, pepper, tomato. 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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