Skip to main content
Main

Lamb Cutlets Farci a LA Francaise

Lamb cutlets stuffed with truffle and liver farce, wrapped in pig's caul, breaded, fried, and served with Sauce Perigueux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Lamb Cutlets Farci a LA Francaise

6 or 8 cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Trim and shape the cutlets, then season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauté pan and lightly fry the cutlets over high heat until underdone.

  3. Drain the cutlets and press them between two tins until cold, then pare and trim neatly.

Coat and fry

  1. Mix the finely chopped truffle with the liver farce and cover each side of the cutlets with the mixture.

  2. Wrap each cutlet in pig's caul, dip in beaten egg, and coat with breadcrumbs (repeat if necessary).

  3. Shape the cutlets neatly and place them in a wire basket.

  4. Fry in hot fat or lard until golden brown, then drain and serve with Sauce Perigueux.

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. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Truffle + livertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lamb + truffletop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb cutlets
Main protein that is pan-fried first and then fried again to a golden crust.
Liver farce
Forms a rich, savoury layer that binds the truffle to the cutlet surface.
Pig's caul
Wraps each cutlet, holding the farce in place and basting the meat as it fries.
Egg
Acts as a glue so the breadcrumbs stick evenly to the wrapped cutlets.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden-brown outer crust when fried.
Truffle
Adds a distinctive earthy aroma to the farce.

The step that matters

Frying the cutlets in the final coating. Fry in hot fat until golden brown so the breadcrumb crust browns quickly and sets before the lamb overcooks. The cutlets were already underdone earlier, so extra time at low heat would make the centre dry.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes