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Crumbed Lamb Cutlets with Chicory Salad

Summer lamb has more flavour than spring lamb, and this is a great way to serve it, says MasterChef judge John Torode

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and chicory share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 44 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Mix the dried breadcrumbs and grated parmesan on a plate. Put the seasoned flour, beaten eggs and crumb mixture into three shallow dishes.

  2. Dip each lamb cutlet in the flour, then the beaten egg, then press it firmly into the crumb mixture to coat. Chill the coated cutlets for 20 minutes to firm up.

  3. Whisk the Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, walnut or hazelnut oil and single cream until smooth. Stir in half the chives and season to taste.

  4. Heat about 1 cm of vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Fry the cutlets in batches for 2 to 3 minutes per side until golden and cooked through to 145°F (63°C), then rest 3 minutes.

  5. Toss the chicory leaves with the sunflower oil, groundnut or corn oil, then with half the dressing. Arrange on serving plates.

  6. Drain the cutlets on kitchen paper, place them on the chicory, spoon over the remaining dressing and scatter with the remaining chives.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mustard + chicorytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Walnut + sunflowertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together129 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Walnut + chicorytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Sunflower + mustardtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Mustard and vinegar share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, lamb, walnut, sunflower, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, lamb, walnut, sunflower, white wine, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).