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Veal Cutlet

A pan‑fried veal cutlet served with a sauce of milk, butter, celery seed, onion, parsley, and crushed crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Cutlet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the veal cutlets in salt water for a short time.

  2. Remove the cutlets from the salt water and pat them dry.

  3. Heat lard or butter in a frying pan until hot.

  4. Beat the egg in a plate.

  5. Place flour on another plate.

  6. Dip each cutlet in the egg.

  7. Dip each cutlet in the flour on both sides.

Fry and make the sauce

  1. Fry the cutlets in the hot pan until nearly done, turning carefully once.

  2. When the cutlets begin to brown, pour off excess lard.

  3. Add a little water, butter, and celery seed to the pan.

  4. Turn the cutlets frequently while cooking.

  5. Once cooked through, place the cutlets in a hot dish.

  6. In the same pan, add milk, butter, pepper, salt, onion, and parsley, stirring constantly until it boils.

  7. Pour the sauce over the cutlets.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish the cutlets with parsley.

  2. Sift crushed crackers on top.

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 + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal cutlets
Main protein; the flour and egg coating help it brown and hold moisture while frying.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the flour coating adheres to the cutlets.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that browns in the fat and gives the cutlet a crisp crust.
Lard or butter
Fat for frying that conducts heat and browns the coating.
Milk
Base of the sauce, adding creaminess and body as it boils.

The step that matters

Dipping and frying the cutlets. Flour must stick to a dry, egg-coated surface, and the pan must be hot. Patting the cutlets dry and keeping the fat hot lets the coating brown and crisp rather than steam and turn greasy or soggy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, egg, flour, pepper, celery, milk):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, egg, flour, pepper, celery, milk. 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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