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Scalloped Lamb

A baked dish of sliced lamb, macaroni, and tomato sauce topped with buttered cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Remove the fat and skin from the cold roast lamb and cut the meat into small, thin slices. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until tender, then rinse thoroughly in cold water.

  3. Prepare a brown tomato sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and layer the meat, macaroni, and tomato sauce in that order until the dish is filled, finishing with sauce on top.

  2. Cover with cracker crumbs moistened with melted butter.

  3. Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until the crumbs are brown.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Cold roast lamb
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is sliced and layered.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture between the layers of meat and sauce.
Tomato sauce
Moistens the layers and adds acidity and savory flavor throughout the dish.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the cracker crumbs brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumbs are brown. The topping must brown without drying the layers beneath. Moistening the crumbs with melted butter helps them brown evenly, and the sauce on top keeps the layers below moist while the oven browns the surface.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, sauce, butter. 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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