Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Mutton Chops, with Bread Crumbs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chops
Trim the fat from the mutton chops and flatten them with a wooden knife.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over both sides of the chops.
Coat the chops
Melt the butter in a frying pan over low heat.
Dip the chops into the melted butter.
Coat the chops with bread crumbs.
Broil and serve
Place each chop on a grill over low heat.
Broil for 10 minutes, turning once.
Serve with slices of lemon on the side.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton chops
- Provide the main meat; trimming and flattening gives them even thickness for even cooking.
- Butter
- Carries the bread crumbs and adds richness and moisture to the surface of the chops.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp coating that browns during broiling and helps hold in moisture.
The step that matters
Broil for 10 minutes, turning once. Turning only once keeps the buttered crumb coating from being disturbed and burning. Low heat lets the chops cook through before the crumbs over-brown.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter, bread):
- Lemonthe original
- Red currantfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Plumfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter, bread. 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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