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Lamb Chops

Lamb chops seasoned with salt and pepper, seared and basted with butter, served with peas or mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Trim the lamb chops close to the bone, scraping them French fashion.

  2. Wipe the chops and shape them using a cleaver or chop bat wet in cold water.

Broil and season

  1. Place the chops on a well-greased broiler under the gas flame.

  2. Sear quickly on one side, then turn and sear the other side until well done.

  3. Reduce heat and cook the chops thoroughly, basting with melted butter or drippings twice if necessary.

  4. Sprinkle both sides with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot platter, covering the tips of the bones with paper frills and surrounding with green peas or mashed potatoes.

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

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

  2. Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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; searing browns the surface while gentle heat cooks the centre through.
Melted butter or drippings
Basting fat that adds moisture and helps the surface brown during broiling.

The step that matters

Reduce heat and cook the chops thoroughly. Searing at high heat browns the outside quickly, but the centre needs lower heat to cook through without the outside burning or drying out.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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