Why it works: Lamb and mutton work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 598 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Epigram of Lamb, Sauce Tartars
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the lamb according to the Breast of Mutton au Gratin recipe, then cool it between two dishes with a weight on top.
The next day, cut the lamb into strips measuring 1x3 inches and ½ inch thick.
Fry
Dip the strips in egg and then in bread crumbs.
Fry the strips in boiling lard until golden‑brown.
Drain on paper in the mouth of the oven for a few moments.
Serve
Arrange the strips in a circle on a serving plate, garnish tastefully, and serve with Tartare Sauce and green peas.
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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Lamb + muttontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Bread + peastop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lamb
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked and then fried into tender strips.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the lamb so the coating adheres during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp golden coating that browns when fried.
- Boiling lard
- Conducts heat to fry the coating quickly, producing a golden-brown crust.
The step that matters
Frying the coated strips in boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough to set the egg and crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat, turns greasy and may fall away from the lamb.
“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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