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Cutlets a LA Main Tenon

Herb-crusted mutton chops broiled and served with a sauce of eschalots, gravy, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Cutlets a LA Main Tenon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Remove the fat from the bone of each chop and scrape it clean.

  2. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, parsley, marjoram, thyme, winter savory, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  3. Melt a little butter in a stewpan and dip each chop in the butter.

  4. Roll the chops in the herb mixture and place them in buttered paper sheets, leaving the end of the bone bare.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the chops over a clear fire for 20 minutes.

  2. Make the sauce by combining finely chopped eschalots, ⅓ cup gravy, pepper, salt, and 1 tablespoon vinegar, then boil the sauce for 1 minute.

  3. Serve the chops in the paper with the sauce.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Marjoram + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the dish; its fat and lean meat carry flavour and juiciness during broiling.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, coating crust that holds the herb mixture to the chops as they cook.
Butter
Carries the herb coating onto the chops and adds richness and browning during cooking.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green herbal aroma that brightens the rich meat.

The step that matters

Broiling the chops over a clear fire. Broiling needs steady, even heat so the herb crust browns and the meat cooks through without scorching. Too hot a fire can burn the crumbs before the thick chop is done.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, bread, parsley, marjoram, thyme, winter savory):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, bread, parsley, marjoram, thyme, winter savory. 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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