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Lamb Chops a LA Milanaise

Lamb chops coated in egg and cracker crumbs, fried and topped with Parmesan, served over buttered spaghetti.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 a LA Milanaise

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lamb

  1. Trim the lamb chops neatly and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Roll the chops in beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs.

Cook the chops

  1. Fry the chops in deep cottolene until golden brown.

  2. Place the fried chops on a dish and cover both sides with grated Parmesan cheese.

  3. Broil in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 minutes to melt the cheese.

Serve with spaghetti

  1. Cook spaghetti in salted water until tender, then drain and season with butter, salt, and paprika or cayenne.

  2. If desired, pour strained tomato sauce over the seasoned spaghetti before placing the lamb chops on top.

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. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 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 chops
Main protein; the tender meat is what the crust and cheese are built around.
Egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the chops so the coating stays in place during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust when fried in hot fat.
Finely grated parmesan cheese
Melts under the broiler and adds savoury, browned flavour to the crust.
Spaghetti
Starch base that soaks up butter and the optional tomato sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that coats the spaghetti and carries the seasoning.

The step that matters

Fry the chops in deep cottolene until golden brown. The coating must be fully set and browned in hot fat before the cheese goes on. Fat that is too cool soaks into the crumbs and leaves a greasy, soggy crust instead of a crisp one.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, egg, parmesan cheese, butter, sauce):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, egg, parmesan cheese, butter, sauce. 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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