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Roast Shoulder of Lamb

A roasted lamb shoulder stuffed with mushrooms, parsley, salt pork, cracker crumbs, herbs, pepper, salt, and a raw egg, served with spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Shoulder of 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. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Stuff and braise

  1. Bone the shoulder of lamb and fill the cavity with a stuffing made from mushrooms, parsley, salt pork, cracker crumbs, herbs, pepper, salt, and the raw egg.

  2. Braise the stuffed lamb in a roasting pan with the stock or gravy.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, serve the lamb surrounded by spinach and garnished with slices of egg.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + spinachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Mushroom + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together778 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Lamb + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together623 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 shoulder
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy through slow braising.
Raw egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when sliced and served.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb juices and give the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury richness that keeps the stuffing moist.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Braise the stuffed lamb in a roasting pan with the stock or gravy. Braising in liquid breaks down the connective tissue in the shoulder slowly, making the meat tender. Cooking it too hot or too briefly can leave it tough, and the stuffing may not cook through in the centre.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, mushroom, pork, pepper, egg, spinach):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, mushroom, pork, pepper, egg, spinach. 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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