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Lamb Chops in Paper with Fine Herbs

Lamb chops wrapped in parchment paper with eschalots, parsley, pepper, sea salt, and nutmeg, then broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Chops in Paper with Fine Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a piece of parchment paper into a heart shape, large enough to wrap a lamb chop.

  2. Rub a little oil over the paper.

  3. Season the chop with chopped eschalots, chopped parsley, pepper, coarse sea salt, and grated nutmeg.

  4. Wrap the chop in the paper, folding down the edges.

Cook and serve

  1. Place it on a gridiron over a slow fire, turning frequently.

  2. Broil for about 20 minutes until done.

  3. Serve the chop in the paper while very hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Lamb + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb chop
Provides the meat that is cooked through and served tender in the paper.
Oil
Thinly coats the paper so it does not stick and helps the chop stay moist.
Chopped eschalots
Add a mild, sharp onion-like aroma that flavours the meat as it cooks.
Grated nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the lamb's seasoning.

The step that matters

Wrapping the chop in the paper. The folded paper must seal the chop fully so the juices and seasonings are trapped and steam the meat rather than let them drip into the fire. A loose or torn wrap lets the chop dry out and the flavour escape.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, parsley, pepper. 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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