Why it works: Bread and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Egg Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, mix the chopped hard boiled egg, bread crumbs, grated cheese, curry powder, pepper, salt, and the beaten yolk of the raw egg.
Shape the mixture into cutlet forms.
Coat and fry
Dip each cutlet in the egg white, then coat with additional bread crumbs.
Fry the cutlets in hot oil until golden brown.
Serve very hot.
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.
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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,253 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
- Raw egg yolk
- Binds the chopped egg and crumbs so the cutlets hold their shape.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
- Egg white
- Acts as a sticky layer that helps the bread crumb coating adhere.
- Grated cheese
- Adds savoury flavour and helps the mixture bind and brown.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the cutlets absorb excess oil and turn greasy, and the coating may fall off. Hot oil quickly sets the crumb crust and browns it before the soft interior overcooks.
“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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