Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Lamb Cutlets with Puree of Mint
six cutletsIngredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim the fat from the neck of lamb and cut six neat cutlets, each half an inch thick.
Coat each cutlet in flour, dip in beaten egg, and then coat with breadcrumbs.
Fry and serve
Place the cutlets in a frying basket and fry in boiling lard for five minutes.
Remove the cutlets and place them on a sieve to dry for two minutes.
Serve on an entree dish with Mint Sauce in a sauce-boat.
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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lamb + flourtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,402 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Lamb + eggtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,204 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 neck
- Provides the meat for the cutlets, which is the main body of the dish.
- Egg
- Binds the flour and breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the cutlets during frying.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot lard.
- Boiling lard
- Conducts heat quickly to cook the coating and set a crisp crust on the cutlets.
The step that matters
Drying on a sieve after frying. Letting the fried cutlets rest on a sieve lets excess fat drain off and keeps the breadcrumb coating from turning greasy and soggy.
“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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