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Roast Leg of Lamb

A roasted leg of lamb seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, served with a breadcrumb stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Roast Leg of Lamb

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove the caul from the leg of lamb and wipe the meat.

  2. Place the lamb on a rack in a dripping pan and dredge the meat and bottom of the pan with flour.

Roast

  1. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven to sear.

  2. Once the flour in the pan is brown, reduce the heat and baste every 10 minutes.

  3. Add a little hot water to the pan as needed while the meat cooks.

  4. When the lamb is about half done, season with salt and pepper.

  5. Roast for 18 minutes per pound.

Make the stuffing

  1. For stuffing, mix bread crumbs, pepper, melted butter, poultry seasoning, salt, and boiling water.

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Leg of lamb
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy as it roasts slowly.
Flour
Dredged on the pan and meat, it browns in the hot oven and adds flavor to the drippings.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the melted butter and boiling water to form a moist, soft stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and moisture into the stuffing.

The step that matters

Basting and adding hot water. Once the flour browns, the pan drippings can scorch. Regular basting and a little hot water keep the surface moist and the drippings from burning, while the meat cooks evenly.

“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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