Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Breaded Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean and trim the chops.
Sear and bread
Heat a frying pan and place the chops in it, turning them once.
Remove the chops to a hot platter.
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Season the cracker dust or bread crumbs.
Dip each chop into the egg.
Coat the chops with the cracker dust.
Fry
Fry the chops in hot lard or dripping until golden brown.
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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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Binds the crumb coating to the chop so it stays attached while frying.
- Cracker dust or bread crumbs
- Forms the crisp, golden outer coating on the chop.
- Lard or dripping
- Conducts heat to brown and crisp the coating during frying.
The step that matters
Frying in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Hot fat sets the crumbs quickly, so they brown and stay on the chop.
“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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