Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets with Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Divide the cutlets into sections.
Dip the cutlets in cream, then sprinkle them with flour, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.
Cook and serve
Sauté the cutlets in hot butter until well browned on both sides.
Remove the cutlets to a hot platter.
In the frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of flour to the fat and 1 cup of cream.
Cook the sauce for five minutes, season to taste, and add fresh mushrooms if available.
Allow the mushrooms to cook for five minutes in the sauce.
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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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Veal cutlets
- The main protein, which browns in the butter to form the dish's base.
- Flour
- Coats the cutlets and thickens the cream sauce made in the pan drippings.
- Cream
- Forms the rich, smooth sauce and adds moisture and body.
- Butter
- Fat for frying that browns the cutlets and carries flavour into the sauce.
- Fresh mushrooms
- Optional addition that contributes earthy flavour and texture to the sauce.
The step that matters
Browning the cutlets in hot butter. Cutlets need enough heat to brown well on both sides; pale, crowded cutlets steam instead, losing the savoury flavour that the sauce builds on.
“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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