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Braised Breast of Lamb

A braised lamb breast stuffed with bread crumb dressing and vegetables, simmered with tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Braised Breast of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Remove all bones from the lamb.

  2. Wipe the lamb carefully with a damp cloth.

  3. Fry bread crumbs in butter.

  4. Add grated onion, parsley, thyme, and spices to the dressing.

  5. Stuff the dressing into the open side of the lamb.

  6. Roll the lamb up neatly.

  7. Tie the roll securely with strips of muslin.

Braise and serve

  1. Fry the chopped vegetables in butter until softened.

  2. Heat an iron pot until very hot. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pot.

  3. Brown the lamb roll on all sides.

  4. Add the fried vegetables to the pot.

  5. Add just enough boiling water or broth to half-cover the meat. Add the tomatoes to the pot.

  6. Stew gently for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the size of the roll.

  7. Serve with the vegetables around the lamb.

  8. If desired, boil down the sauce for a few minutes.

  9. Thicken the sauce with a pinch of corn starch mixed with cold water, or with a little brown roux.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb breast and shoulder
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing in liquid.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices in the stuffing, helping it hold together inside the roll.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding savory depth to the dressing and braising liquid.
Carrot
Softens and adds natural sweetness to the braising liquid and vegetables.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the braising liquid, enriching the sauce.
Butter
Browns the lamb and vegetables and adds richness to the dish.

The step that matters

Brown the lamb roll on all sides. Browning creates deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. Drying the lamb with a cloth first and searing in very hot fat helps it brown rather than steam.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, carrot, parsley, turnip, bread, onion, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, carrot, parsley, turnip, bread, onion, 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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