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Lamb’s Feet, with Asparagus Peas

Lamb's feet simmered with bacon, lemon, stock, and asparagus peas, served with béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lamb’s Feet, with Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. Scald lamb's feet.

  2. Remove the worm from between the hoofs.

  3. Loosen the skin and gristle from the shank bone.

  4. Place feet in cold water.

  5. Boil until the shank bone draws out.

Braise

  1. Cover the bottom of a stewpan with bacon sheets.

  2. Add lamb's feet, sliced lemons, and second stock.

  3. Cover with bacon and paper.

  4. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  5. Remove feet.

  6. Let them dry on a clean cloth.

Plate and serve

  1. Arrange feet on a dish.

  2. Top with asparagus peas.

  3. Boil asparagus in just enough stock to cover until reduced.

  4. Prepare béchamel sauce.

  5. Keep sauce warm without boiling.

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. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + asparagustop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together704 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + peastop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,005 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb's feet
Provide the main body of the dish, with gelatinous skin and gristle that soften during gentle simmering.
Sheets of bacon
Line the pan and cover the feet, adding savoury fat and aroma to the braising liquid.
Lemons
Add acidity and brightness that cut through the richness of the braised meat.
Second stock
Supplies moisture and flavour for gentle braising, keeping the feet from drying out.
Béchamel sauce
Adds a smooth, creamy texture and richness to the finished plate.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 1 hour. Boiling rather than simmering toughens the meat and can break up the feet. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the skin and gristle slowly convert to gelatin, giving a tender, silky result.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Pumpkinfits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, asparagus, peas, 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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