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Lamb Cutlets and Asparagus Peas

A dish of lamb cutlets served with boiled asparagus pieces resembling peas, flavored with butter, sugar, and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 and Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lamb

  1. Prepare the lamb cutlets as per your preferred method.

Make the asparagus peas

  1. Cut the green part of the asparagus into small pieces resembling peas.

  2. Boil the asparagus pieces carefully.

  3. Drain the asparagus thoroughly to remove all moisture.

Finish and serve

  1. In a saucepan, add ½ cup of butter, a little pepper, salt, a pinch of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of white sauce.

  2. Stir the mixture gently over low heat until the butter melts.

  3. Garnish the lamb cutlets with the asparagus peas and serve.

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. Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together207 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Forms the main protein of the dish, providing the substance and flavour the rest of the plate supports.
Asparagus
Provides the green vegetable element, cut into small pieces to resemble peas.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the sauce a smooth, silky texture.
White sauce
Adds creamy body and moisture to the butter mixture, helping it coat the asparagus.

The step that matters

Drain the asparagus thoroughly to remove all moisture. Excess water left on boiled asparagus dilutes the butter mixture and prevents it from coating the pieces evenly, so the dish turns out watery.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Asparagusthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Potatofits less well

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

“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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