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Lamb Chops a LA Villeroi

Lamb chops coated in crackers and breadcrumbs, fried and served with bechamel sauce and parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lamb Chops a LA Villeroi

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Remove the spine from the lamb chops and flatten them.

  2. Season the chops with salt and pepper.

  3. Heat the melted butter in a skillet and fry the chops until slightly brown on both sides.

  4. Drain the chops and press them between two tin sheets with a weight on top.

  5. Immerse the pressed chops in lukewarm bechamel or Allemande sauce and cool thoroughly.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the cooled chops in pulverized crackers, then dip in beaten eggs, and roll again in fresh breadcrumbs.

  2. Smooth the coating nicely and fry until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Arrange the chops in a circle on a serving dish, fill the center with fried parsley, and place small paper ruffles on the rib bones before serving.

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

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

  2. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb chops
Provide the main meat, which is flattened and cooked before being coated.
Melted butter
Browns the chops in the skillet and adds richness to the surface.
Bechamel or allemande sauce
Coats the pressed chops so they chill and set with a thick, creamy layer.
Beaten eggs
Bind the cracker and breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the chops.
Pulverized crackers
Form a first crisp layer that helps the coating hold and brown.
Fresh breadcrumbs
Add an outer layer that fries to a golden, crunchy crust.

The step that matters

Cool the pressed chops thoroughly in the sauce. The chops must be fully chilled and firm before breading, otherwise the sauce layer softens, the coating slides off, and it may break open in the hot fat.

“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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