Name: Lamb Cutlets
Ingredients: Lamb cutlets; Egg; Breadcrumbs; Coarse sea salt; Vegetable oil or butter for frying; Asparagus, green peas, or spinach (for serving)

Why it works: Lamb and asparagus work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 207 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lamb Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Trim excess fat from the lamb cutlets and scrape the ends of the bones, leaving about ¼ inch bare.
Flatten the cutlets with a wet rolling pin or chopping knife for even cooking.
Coat the cutlets in beaten egg, then dredge in breadcrumbs.
Fry the cutlets in vegetable oil or butter until golden brown.
Serve with asparagus, green peas, or spinach, and your choice of 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.

Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together207 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Egg + asparagustop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,338 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + asparagustop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,026 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,232 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).