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Broiled Lamb Cutlets with Mint Sauce

Broiled lamb cutlets served with a mint, sugar, and vinegar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,372 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Broiled Lamb Cutlets with Mint Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Mix the chopped mint, sugar, and vinegar on a platter.

  2. Lay the lamb cutlets on the mixture and dust with pepper.

  3. Let the cutlets marinate for 30 minutes, then turn them over.

Broil

  1. After 1 hour, place the cutlets on a buttered double-wire gridiron.

  2. Broil the cutlets quickly over a hot fire.

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. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mint + lambtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together772 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh mint
Provides the aromatic, herbal flavour that defines the mint sauce.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds a touch of sweetness.
Vinegar
Acidity that flavours the marinade and sharpens the mint.
Lean lamb cutlets
The main protein, which browns and cooks quickly over high heat.

The step that matters

Broiling quickly over a hot fire. High heat browns the outside before the thin cutlets overcook inside. Lean cuts dry out easily, so timing matters. Turning and watching the surface helps the meat stay juicy.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, lamb, pepper, 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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