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Lamb Cutlets a LA Victor Hugo

Lamb cutlets seasoned, broiled, topped with horseradish béarnaise, truffle, and Madeira glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,646 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lamb Cutlets a LA Victor Hugo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Season the lamb cutlets with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Coat the cutlets with oil.

  3. Broil the cutlets until cooked through.

Dress and serve

  1. Cover each cutlet with well-buttered béarnaise sauce mixed with grated fresh horseradish.

  2. Place a warmed round slice of truffle on each cutlet.

  3. Dress the cutlets in a circle on a plate.

  4. Pour a little half-glaze sauce around them.

  5. Trim the handles of the cutlets with a frill.

  6. 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. Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Sauce + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Truffle + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Lamb + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together469 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb cutlets
Provide the main meat, whose fat and proteins carry flavour and tenderness when broiled.
Béarnaise sauce
Adds a rich, buttery coating whose fat carries flavour over the hot lamb.
Fresh horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that cuts through the richness of the butter and lamb.
Truffle
Contributes a deep, earthy aroma that perfumes the dish.
Half-glaze sauce
Adds concentrated savoury depth and gloss to the plate around the cutlets.

The step that matters

Broil the cutlets until cooked through. Intense direct heat browns the surface quickly, so the cutlets can dry out or scorch before the centre is done. Watching closely keeps the meat juicy while the exterior develops colour.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, sauce, truffle, meat, madeira wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, sauce, truffle, meat, madeira wine. 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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