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Lamb Cutlets and Peas

A simple dish of lamb cutlets served with boiled peas.

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 Cutlets and Peas

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the lamb

  1. Season the lamb cutlets with salt and pepper.

  2. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  3. Cook the lamb cutlets for about 4-5 minutes on each side until browned.

Cook the peas and serve

  1. In a separate pot, boil the peas until tender.

  2. Serve the lamb cutlets with the peas on the side.

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. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Peas + buttertop 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 cutlets
Main protein; searing in butter browns the surface and builds savory flavour.
Peas
Provide sweetness and a tender, mild vegetable texture alongside the rich lamb.
Butter
Conducts heat in the skillet and adds fat that promotes browning and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Browning the lamb cutlets. Cooking over medium heat for the stated time needs enough surface heat to brown the meat. Browning, driven by the Maillard reaction, creates savory flavour. Crowding the pan or moving the cutlets too early can steam them instead.

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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