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Lamb Cutlets a l’aLLEMANDE

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lamb Cutlets a l’aLLEMANDE

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make a paste with the eggs, butter, flour, and salt.

  2. Roll out the paste as thin as possible on a marble slab.

  3. Fold the paste over three or four times and shred it finely with a sharp knife.

  4. Blanch the shredded paste in boiling water for 5-6 minutes, then drain it on a sieve.

  5. In a pan, melt a bit of butter and add the drained paste to fry.

  6. Once it appears to fry, add the consommé and reduce it.

  7. Stir in the béchamel sauce and a little grated nutmeg.

  8. Pour this mixture in the center of the prepared lamb cutlets.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Jalapenofits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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