Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pork Cutlets Atjx Cornichons
serves 6 to 8 cutletsIngredients
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Season the pork cutlets with salt and pepper.
Dip the cutlets in beaten eggs, then coat with grated bread crust.
Fry and keep warm
Heat lard or butter in a frying pan and fry the cutlets slowly until done.
Keep the cutlets warm on a dish.
Make the sauce and serve
Pour some fat from the pan, add flour, and mix well.
Moisten with broth or water and add glaze, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Add sliced gherkins and warm the cutlets gently in the sauce.
Serve the cutlets on a dish, sauced over.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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
- Pork cutlets
- Provide the main meat, which is cooked through by slow frying.
- Eggs
- Bind the bread crust coating so it adheres to the cutlets.
- Bread crust (in the method)
- Forms a crisp, browned coating when fried in fat.
- Flour
- Thickens the pan fat and liquid into a smooth sauce.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the richness of the fat.
- Gherkins
- Add tart, acidic flavour and texture to the sauce.
The step that matters
Frying the cutlets slowly. Slow frying over moderate heat cooks the pork through to the centre while the coating browns evenly, rather than scorching the outside before the meat is done.
“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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