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Veal Cutlets

Veal cutlets coated in egg and cracker crumbs, fried with drippings, served with butter and French mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Veal Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the veal cutlets and corned ham into equal sizes.

  2. Flatten the cutlets with a hatchet.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the cutlets in the beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs mixed with pepper, coarse sea salt, and minced parsley if desired.

  2. Fry the cutlets in drippings until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Drain the cutlets and arrange them on a dish, alternating with broiled slices of ham.

  2. Spread a dressing of butter and a little French mustard over the cutlets.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal cutlets
Form the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender interior under a crisp coating.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the cracker crumbs adhere to the cutlets.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
Cooked corned ham slices
Add salty, savoury flavour alongside the veal.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty flavour to the finished dressing.
French mustard
Adds sharp, acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the butter and meat.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in drippings until golden brown. Frying over steady heat browns the crumb coating through Maillard reactions while the veal cooks through. Too hot and the coating burns before the meat is done; too cool and it absorbs fat and turns greasy.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, egg, pepper, butter, mustard):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, egg, pepper, butter, mustard. 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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