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Beef Cutlets

Beef cutlets simmered in a tomato-based sauce with onions and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the steak all over with flour.

  2. Cut it into cutlets.

Brown the meat and onions

  1. Heat sweet drippings in a frying pan.

  2. Brown the sliced onions.

  3. Remove the browned onions to a stewpan.

  4. Brown the cutlets on both sides in the same frying pan.

  5. Transfer the browned cutlets to the stewpan with the onions.

Simmer

  1. Pour hot water into the frying pan. Stir. Bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the boiling liquid over the cutlets.

  3. Add salt, pepper and cloves.

  4. Simmer until tender.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the main meat; browning and slow simmering make it tender.
Flour
Coats the steak so it browns well and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they brown, adding flavor to the sauce.
Tomato or chili sauce
Adds acidity and savory depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Brown the cutlets on both sides. Browning builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction, and the floured surface needs enough heat to brown rather than steam before the liquid is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, flour, pepper, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, flour, pepper, clove. 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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