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House-lamb Steaks, Brown

Lamb steaks served in a brown gravy made with port wine, oysters, flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

House-lamb Steaks, Brown

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Season the lamb steaks with pepper, coarse sea salt, nutmeg, grated lemon peel, and chopped parsley.

  2. Dip the steaks into the egg, then fry them quickly in a hot pan.

Make the gravy

  1. In a separate pot, thicken some gravy with flour and butter.

  2. Add the port wine and oysters to the gravy, and bring it to a boil.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the warm steaks to the gravy, let them heat through, 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb steaks
The main protein, which is browned quickly so the outside sets while the inside stays tender.
Egg
Binds the seasoning to the steaks and helps form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the steaks instead of running off them.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy and gives it a rounded flavor.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the gravy as it reduces.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savory flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks quickly in a hot pan. A hot pan browns the egg coating and surface of the lamb fast, building flavor and a crisp crust before the interior overcooks. Cooking slowly would dry out the meat and make the coating soggy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, lemon, parsley, egg, flour, 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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