Why it works: Lamb and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,165 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lamb Cutlets Superlative
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Season the lamb cutlets with coarse sea salt and pepper.
Dip each cutlet in beaten eggs, then coat with breadcrumbs.
Cook and serve
Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Fry the cutlets until golden brown on both sides.
Serve hot.
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 + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,165 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,232 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lamb + eggtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,204 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lamb cutlets
- Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat for the coating and frying.
- Eggs
- Bind the breadcrumb coating to the cutlets so it adheres during frying.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.
- Butter
- Conducts heat in the skillet and adds fat that promotes browning and flavour.
The step that matters
Fry the cutlets until golden brown on both sides. Frying over medium heat lets the breadcrumb coating brown through the Maillard reaction, which builds flavour and colour. Too high a heat scorches the crumbs before the lamb cooks through, while too low a heat leaves the coating pale and greasy.
“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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