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Lamb Chops, Fried

Fried lamb chops seasoned with salt and pepper, coated in flour, cooked in butter and lard, finished with tomato ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lamb Chops, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the lamb chops in cold water and dry them.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.

Fry the chops

  1. Heat the butter and lard in a skillet until hot.

  2. Add the lamb chops and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Turn the chops and cook for another 10 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Transfer to a warm chafing dish.

  2. Pour in the hot water and bring to a boil, stirring well.

  3. Add the tomato ketchup and serve.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb chops
The main protein; frying cooks the meat and browns its surface.
Flour
Dredging forms a coating that browns in the hot fat and helps the crust hold.
Butter
Adds flavour and helps brown the surface of the chops in the skillet.
Lard
Fat for frying that tolerates high heat and gives the chops a crisp, browned surface.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Heat the fat until hot before adding the chops. Chops added to fat that is not hot enough absorb it and steam rather than sear, so the coating turns greasy and pale instead of crisp and browned.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, flour, butter, ketchup. 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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