Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Spaghettina Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the spaghettina
Boil the spaghettina in salted water for three-quarters of an hour, then drain well in a colander.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter and stir in the flour until smooth.
Add the grated cheese, milk, and spaghettina to the sauce.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then stir in the beaten egg quickly and let it thicken.
Remove the sauce from the heat and turn it out onto a deep plate.
Let the sauce cool, then shape it into chops.
Fry and serve
Dip the chops in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs.
Fry the chops in boiling fat until cooked.
Serve the chops with tomato sauce, or without.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Spaghettina
- Forms the bulk of the chops, giving them body and a firm, sliceable structure.
- Egg
- Stirred into the hot sauce to thicken it and help bind the chops together.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and milk mixture so the sauce sets firm enough to shape.
- Grated cheese
- Adds savoury flavour and richness to the sauce.
- Butter
- Provides fat for the roux and adds richness to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the beaten egg into the boiling sauce. Egg proteins set with heat and can scramble into lumps if the sauce is too hot or the egg is added slowly. Stirring it in quickly keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.
“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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