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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut and trim some rare slices from a leg of lamb.
Dip the slices in beaten egg.
Coat the slices in seasoned bread crumbs with salt and pepper.
Dip again in egg, then in crumbs.
Cook
Fry in deep fat until brown.
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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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).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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
- Leg of lamb slices
- Provides the main meat, which stays tender and juicy because it is cut thin and kept rare.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the lamb so the coating holds during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden-brown coating when fried.
The step that matters
Fry in deep fat until brown. The lamb is cut rare, so frying must brown the crumb coating quickly without overcooking the meat inside. Oil that is too cool makes the coating soak up fat and go greasy, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the centre warms.
“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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