Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Currie of Vbal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gravy
Cut the neck of veal into cutlets.
Make a gravy with the trimmings, seasoning it with pepper, coarse sea salt, and an onion.
Strain and thicken the gravy with flour and butter, then add 2 tablespoons of curry powder.
Cook and finish
Fry the cutlets with a minced onion in butter until light brown.
Stew the cutlets in the prepared gravy until tender.
Before serving, add the juice of half a lemon and a little chili pepper.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Flour and butter 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
- Neck of veal
- Provides the meat that becomes tender after slow stewing in the gravy.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy so it coats the cutlets.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the cutlets brown when fried.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spiced aroma and flavor that define the dish.
- Onion
- Adds savory sweetness to the gravy and to the browned cutlets.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce.
The step that matters
Stewing the cutlets until tender. Veal neck is full of connective tissue that only breaks down into tender meat with long, gentle simmering. Rushing or boiling hard leaves the meat tough and stringy, so keep the gravy at a low, steady simmer until the cutlets are fully tender.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, flour, butter, lemon):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, flour, butter, lemon. 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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