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Lamb's Rumps and Ears

A stew of lamb rumps and ears with gravy, peas, asparagus, and a creamy egg yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lamb's Rumps and Ears

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Scald the lamb rumps and ears until very clean.

  2. Stew them in good gravy until tender.

  3. For brown rumps, wash them with egg yolk and coat with bread crumbs.

  4. Brown the rumps in a Dutch oven or on a grill.

  5. Return the rumps to the stew.

Finish the stew

  1. Boil green peas and asparagus tops separately.

  2. Stir in butter thickened with flour, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Add the peas and asparagus.

  4. Let boil briefly.

  5. Stir in cream mixed with egg yolk.

  6. Do not let it boil after adding the cream.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Bread + peastop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb rumps and ears
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender after long stewing in gravy.
Egg yolk
Binds the bread crumb coating and enriches the cream for a smooth, rich texture.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the rumps when they are browned.
Butter
Adds richness, and with flour forms a thickened base that gives the stew body.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that gives the stew body.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky, mellow texture to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil after adding the cream.. Egg yolk mixed with cream can curdle and turn grainy when it overheats, so the stew should be kept below a boil once the cream goes in.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, egg, bread, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, egg, bread, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg. 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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