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Veal Cutlet

Fried veal cutlets served with a creamy milk and butter sauce, garnished with crushed crackers and parsley.

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 the cutlets

  1. Soak the veal cutlets in salt water for a short time, then remove and pat dry.

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

  3. Beat the egg in a plate and place flour on another plate.

  4. Dip each cutlet first in the egg, then in the flour on both sides.

Fry the cutlets

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

  2. When they begin to brown, pour off excess lard and add a little water, butter, and celery seed.

  3. Turn the cutlets frequently while cooking.

  4. Once fully cooked, place the cutlets in a hot dish.

Make the sauce and serve

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

  2. Pour the sauce over the cutlets and garnish with crushed crackers and parsley.

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
Provide the main meat, which is coated and fried until tender and browned.
Egg
Binds the flour coating to the cutlets so it adheres during frying.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that browns in the hot fat and crisps the surface.
Lard or butter
Fat for frying that browns the coating and carries flavour.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream sauce, giving it body and a mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce as it comes to a boil. Milk-based sauces can scorch or form a skin on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring keeps the milk proteins evenly dispersed and the sauce smooth as it thickens.

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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