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Neck or Loin of Lamb

Lamb chops coated in egg yolk and herbs, fried and served with a sauce of ale, white wine, capers, and egg yolks.

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 chops

  1. Cut the lamb into chops.

  2. Rub both sides with the egg yolk.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, marjoram, winter 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, egg yolks, nutmeg, and salt.

  4. Stir until thick, then add the chops and shake the pan for 1-2 minutes.

Serve

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

  2. Serve the chops in a dish and pour the sauce over them.

  3. 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. 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

Egg yolk
Binds the herb and crumb coating so it adheres to the chops.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the chops when fried.
Butter
Conducts heat and browns the coated chops, adding richness.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as it is stirred, giving it a smooth, rich body.
White wine
Adds acidity to the sauce, balancing the richness of the yolks and butter.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk sauce. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce is heated too fast or too long it can scramble and turn grainy. Stir steadily and keep the heat low until it coats a spoon.

“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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