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Egg Cutlets

Egg cutlets are small patties made from a mixture of hard‑boiled eggs, ham, mushrooms, flour, milk, and seasonings, then coated and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Egg Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the eggs for 15 minutes.

  2. Cut the boiled eggs into small dice.

  3. Mince the ham and mushrooms finely.

Make the panada

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and milk to make a panada.

  3. Cook the panada until it boils.

  4. Remove the panada from heat.

Shape and fry

  1. Stir in the yolk, salt, pepper, cayenne, ham, mushrooms, and hard-boiled eggs.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a plate to cool.

  3. Shape the cooled mixture into cutlets.

  4. Coat the cutlets with egg and breadcrumbs.

  5. Fry the cutlets until golden.

  6. Serve the cutlets in a circle, garnished with fried parsley or watercress in the center.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the panada and adds richness and flavour to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a panada that binds the filling so it holds its shape.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form the panada, giving the filling a soft, moist texture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the bulk of the filling, giving the cutlets their body and texture.
Raw egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the mixture together.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the panada until it boils. Flour must be cooked until the mixture boils so the starch swells and thickens fully; undercooked flour leaves a raw taste and a loose mixture that will not hold its shape when shaped and fried.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ham, butter, mushroom, flour, milk, pepper):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, butter, mushroom, flour, milk, pepper. 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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