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Tureen of Lambs Tails

A hearty soup made from lamb's tails, lean ham, old fowls, onions, mace, stock, asparagus peas, egg yolks, cream, and béchamel.

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

Tureen of Lambs Tails

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Blanch the lamb's tails.

  2. Place the blanched lamb's tails in a small soup pot.

  3. Layer the bottom of a stewpan with lean ham.

  4. Add chopped old fowls.

  5. Add onions.

  6. Add a fagot.

  7. Add mace.

  8. Pour in ½ cup of water.

  9. Simmer slowly for an hour.

  10. Ensure it doesn't catch on the bottom.

  11. Add 2 quarts of stock.

  12. Boil slowly for an hour.

  13. Strain the mixture.

  14. Skim off the fat.

Add asparagus peas and stock

  1. Boil 1 pint of asparagus peas in some of the stock.

  2. Add the boiled asparagus peas to the lamb's tails.

  3. Add the remaining stock to the lamb's tails.

  4. Set the soup pot aside to boil for a few minutes.

Finish with the liaison

  1. Mix 4 egg yolks with 1 pint of boiled cream.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Combine the strained mixture with 1 pint of béchamel.

  4. Remove the soup from the heat.

  5. Stir in the liaison.

  6. Return the soup to the heat.

  7. Stir continuously until it begins to boil.

  8. Place the soup pot in a warm water bath at the side of the stove.

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

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

  3. Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  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 tails
Provide the main meat flavour and body of the soup.
Old fowls
Add rich, gelatinous body and savoury depth to the stock.
Egg yolks
Thicken the liaison and give the soup a smooth, velvety texture.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the flavour and texture of the soup.
Béchamel
Adds thickness and body to the soup.

The step that matters

Stir in the liaison. Egg yolks can curdle if the soup is too hot when they are added. Removing the pot from the heat before stirring in the liaison, then warming gently while stirring constantly, lets the yolks thicken smoothly without scrambling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, ham, onion, asparagus, peas, egg, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, ham, onion, asparagus, peas, egg, cream. 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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