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Prussian Cutlets

A savory dish of diced sweetbreads, tongue, and mushrooms in a gelatin‑based sauce, formed into croquettes and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Prussian Cutlets

twelve croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the sweetbreads and tongue, then dice them together with the mushrooms.

  2. Make a white sauce by combining the broth, butter, and flour; boil it down to half its original quantity.

  3. Flavor the sauce with lemon juice and salt, then dissolve the gelatin and add it to the sauce along with the Madeira and egg yolks.

  4. Mix in the diced sweetbreads, tongue, and mushrooms to form a paste.

Set and shape

  1. Spread the mixture over a dish that has breadcrumbs scattered on it, then top with another layer of breadcrumbs.

  2. Let it stand in a cool place for an hour.

  3. Form the mixture into twelve croquettes, rolling them in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the croquettes in butter or dripping until golden.

  2. Wash and dry some parsley, fry it for half a minute, and use it to garnish the croquettes.

  3. Serve the croquettes in a serviette.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Sweetbread
Provides the soft, tender meat that forms the bulk of the filling.
Gelatine
Helps the filling set firm so it can be shaped into croquettes.
Egg yolks
Enrich and bind the sauce, adding richness and helping it hold together.
Flour
Thickens the broth and butter into a white sauce that binds the filling.
Butter
Adds richness to the white sauce and fat for frying the croquettes golden.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the diced filling.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand in a cool place for an hour. The gelatine and starch-thickened sauce must set firmly before shaping, otherwise the croquettes will be soft and may fall apart when rolled and fried.

“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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