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Neck or Loin of Lamb

Lamb chops coated with herbs and breadcrumbs, fried and served with a sauce of ale, white wine, capers, egg yolks, nutmeg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram 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 ↓

Neck or Loin of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Cut the lamb into chops.

  2. Rub both sides with the egg yolk.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, marjoram, savory, and lemon peel.

  4. Fry in butter until light brown.

Make the sauce

  1. For an alternative, place the steaks in a pan with ale and seasoning, cover, and cook.

  2. Remove the steaks and keep warm.

  3. Pour the pan juices into a bowl, add white wine, capers, beaten egg yolks, nutmeg, and salt.

  4. Stir continuously until thickened, then add the chops.

  5. Shake the pan for 1-2 minutes, then serve the chops with sauce poured over them.

Serve

  1. Place in a dish and garnish with crisped parsley.

  2. Garnish with crisped parsley and lemon.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb chops
The main protein, which browns on the outside while staying tender inside.
Egg yolks
Bind the herb coating to the meat and thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that holds the herbs against the meat.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, promoting browning and a rich flavour on the chops.
Ale
Adds malty, bitter depth to the pan juices in the alternative method.
White wine
Adds acidity to the sauce, brightening its flavour and balancing the richness of the yolks.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk sauce until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. If the heat is too high or stirring stops, they can scramble into lumps instead of forming a smooth sauce.

“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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