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Lamb Cutlets with Asparagus Peas

Lamb cutlets served with stewed asparagus peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lamb Cutlets with Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the neck of lamb into cutlets and trim them neatly.

  2. Place the cutlets in a pan with clarified butter and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Cook and glaze

  1. Cook on high heat initially, then reduce to low heat, adding a ladleful of consommé.

  2. Shake the pan occasionally to ensure the cutlets glaze evenly.

  3. Once well glazed, arrange the cutlets neatly on a serving dish.

  4. Pour stewed asparagus peas in the center of the dish.

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. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Lamb + peastop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + asparagustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of lamb
Provides the meat that is cooked and glazed as the main component of the dish.
Clarified butter
Conducts heat in the pan and adds richness to the cutlets during cooking.
Consommé
Adds savory liquid that reduces in the pan to build a glaze on the cutlets.

The step that matters

Reducing the heat after the initial high-heat cook. Searing on high heat browns the surface, while lowering the heat before the pan dries out lets the consommé reduce gently into a glaze instead of burning or scorching.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, butter, asparagus. 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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