Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Lamb Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Take the cutlets from a neck of lamb, ensuring each has a bone.
Cut them thin and dip in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs mixed with parsley, pepper, and salt.
Cook and serve
Fry the cutlets in lard until they are a nice brown.
Serve with mushroom or tomato sauce, arranging the cutlets around the dish.
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.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,322 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,132 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lamb cutlets
- Forms the main meat, cooked through and tender when fried thin.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the cutlets so the coating stays in place while frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
- Lard
- Fat for frying that conducts heat evenly and helps the coating brown.
The step that matters
Frying the cutlets until brown. Frying in hot lard browns the breaded coating through the Maillard reaction, giving flavour and colour. Too low a heat soaks the coating in fat, while too high a heat can scorch it before the lamb is cooked through.
“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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