Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut veal from the middle of the leg into 1-inch thick cutlets and pound each piece to ½ inch thick.
Squeeze lemon juice over the cutlets and stack them for a couple of hours.
Season with salt, dip in beaten egg, and coat with bread crumbs.
Fry
Heat beef dripping or lard in a pan until hot.
Fry the cutlets until pale brown on one side, then turn carefully with a cake turner.
Cook for 12 to 15 minutes until thoroughly done.
Remove cutlets and pour out excess fat from the pan.
Make the gravy
Add 2 teaspoons of brown thickening to the pan and melt it.
Pour in cream and hot water or broth, stirring to combine and scrape the pan.
Season with salt and pepper, then dress the cutlets on a dish and pour the gravy around them.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,032 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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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
- Veal cutlets
- Lean meat that becomes tender and mild when pounded thin and cooked through.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumb coating to the cutlet so it adheres during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden-brown crust that protects the meat during frying.
- Beef dripping or lard
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body to the gravy, softening its flavor and texture.
- Brown thickening (in the method)
- Thickens the pan juices into a smooth gravy as it melts and heats.
The step that matters
Pour out excess fat before making the gravy. Leaving too much fat in the pan makes the gravy greasy and can prevent it from thickening smoothly. Pouring off most of the fat and keeping the browned bits lets the thickening blend in and carry the pan flavor.
“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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