Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓
Lamb Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim off the flap from the loin of lamb and cut it into cutlets about ½ inch thick.
Prepare a bright, clear fire and lay the cutlets on a grill.
Cook and serve
Broil the cutlets until they are a nice pale brown, turning them as needed.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Serve very hot and quickly, garnished with crisped parsley or on a bed of mashed potatoes.
Accompany with asparagus, spinach, or peas if desired.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + asparagustop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together217 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + asparagustop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together566 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together207 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
- Loin of lamb
- Is the meat itself, cut into cutlets that cook quickly and stay tender when served hot.
The step that matters
Broil until pale brown, then serve very hot. Lamb cutlets are thin and cook fast, so overcooking dries them out. Turning them as needed helps them brown evenly, and serving them quickly keeps them hot and juicy.
Swap the potato
The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, parsley, asparagus):
- Spinachfits better
- Carrotfits about as well
- Okrafits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, parsley, asparagus. 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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