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Vegetable Cutlets

Vegetable cutlets made from cooked rice, beans, mashed potatoes, onion, tomato, and cornstarch, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Cutlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pass the cooked rice and beans through a meat grinder.

  2. Mix the ground rice and beans with the mashed potatoes thoroughly.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the chopped onion in the oil or fat until soft.

  2. Stir the cornstarch, chopped tomato, and salt into the onion mixture.

  3. Combine the two mixtures and shape them into cutlets.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  2. Baste twice with oil or fat.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Rice + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Beans + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beans
Provide the bulk and protein-rich body that holds the cutlet together.
Mashed potatoes
Bind the mixture and add moisture so the cutlets stay tender.
Cooked rice
Adds structure and a light, crumbly texture to the cutlets.
Cornstarch
Absorbs moisture and helps the cutlets hold their shape when baked.
Oil or savory fat
Carries flavor and promotes browning on the outside of the cutlets.

The step that matters

Shape and baste the cutlets. Cutlets that are loosely packed or too wet may crumble or dry out in the oven. Firm shaping helps them hold together, and basting with fat helps the surface brown and stay moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, beans, potato, tomato):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, beans, potato, tomato. 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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