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Beef Cutlet

Beef cutlets made from finely chopped stewing beef mixed with spices, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Cutlet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the beef until tender, then chop it very fine.

  2. Mix the chopped beef with salt, cayenne pepper, white pepper, onion juice, and parsley.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine hot cream, butter, cornstarch, salt, white pepper, and celery salt. Cook until thick.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg.

  3. Combine the beef mixture with the sauce, shaping into cutlets.

Coat and serve

  1. Dip each cutlet in bread crumbs, then in beaten egg. Repeat the process.

  2. Fry the cutlets in hot fat for one minute.

  3. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Stewing beef or beefsteak
Forms the main body of the cutlet and gives it its meaty flavour and bulk.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot cream into a sauce that binds the beef into a shapeable mixture.
Hot cream
Provides moisture and richness, and with the cornstarch forms the binding sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, giving a smoother mouthfeel.
Beaten egg
Sets when heated, helping bind the cutlet and form a crust with the bread crumbs.

The step that matters

Cooking the cream sauce until thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the liquid reaches a simmer and is stirred. If the sauce stays thin, the beef mixture will not hold its shape and the cutlets may fall apart in the pan.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, onion, parsley, cream, butter, celery. 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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