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Beef Cutlets

Thin slices of beef seasoned with vinegar, salt, pepper, and served with butter and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim away all skin and fat from the beef, leaving only the fillet.

  2. Cut the fillet into slices ½ inch thick.

  3. Rub the meat with vinegar, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  4. Let the cutlets sit for at least 2 hours.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the cutlets slowly, turning often, for 5 to 6 minutes.

  2. Serve with a piece of butter mixed with chopped parsley, pepper, and salt on each cutlet just before serving.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Butter + filberttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef fillet
Provides the lean, tender meat that forms the cutlets.
Vinegar
Acidity that tenderises the surface of the meat before cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture when melted over the hot cutlets.

The step that matters

Broil the cutlets slowly, turning often. Slow, frequent turning keeps the heat gentle so the thin slices cook through without drying or burning on the outside. Overcooking toughens lean meat as its proteins tighten, so the short 5 to 6 minute window matters.

Swap the filbert

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, vinegar, butter, parsley):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, vinegar, butter, parsley. 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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