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Deviled Lamb

Seasoned lamb scored and browned with salt, pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Score the lamb to the bone about an inch apart.

  2. Season the lamb highly with salt, white and red pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the lamb on a gridiron and brown quickly over a hot fire.

  2. Serve hot with additional Worcestershire sauce.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lamb + mustardtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. White pepper + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb
Provides the meat that is scored, seasoned and browned over the fire.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that complements the rich lamb.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth and helps flavor the crust as it browns.
Red pepper
Adds heat that seasons the meat throughout.

The step that matters

Brown quickly over a hot fire. Searing over high heat browns the surface quickly, building flavorful crust. Slow cooking at lower heat would dry the meat and fail to brown it well, so the fire must be hot and the timing short.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, mustard, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, mustard, 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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