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Fried Veal Cutlets

Fried veal cutlets served with a brown gravy made from reserved lard and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Veal Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Heat lard or drippings in a frying pan until boiling hot.

  2. Season the cutlets with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.

  3. Fry the cutlets until browned on both sides, then remove from the pan.

Make the gravy

  1. Reserve excess grease for later use, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan.

  2. Mix 1 tablespoon flour into the reserved grease until smooth and brown.

  3. Gradually add 1 cup cold water, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  4. Bring the gravy to a boil, then return the cutlets to the pan.

Simmer

  1. Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes to soften the meat.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  5. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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
The main protein, browned in fat and then softened by simmering in gravy.
Flour
Coats the cutlets for a browned crust and thickens the gravy with the grease.
Lard or beef drippings
Fat for frying that browns the cutlets and carries flavour into the gravy.
Cold water
Liquid that, when whisked into the roux, forms the body of the gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the cold water to the roux. Adding the liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour smooth. Adding it all at once can leave lumps, and the gravy will not thicken evenly.

“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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