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Wild Boar Cutlets

Sliced wild boar cutlets marinated in vinegar, wine, and garlic, then fried in butter and served with a garlicky sauce and gherkins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Wild boar and garlic work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 15 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanol, which smells resin, flower. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the under fillets of wild boar into slices ¾ inch thick, shaped like cutlets.

  2. Place the cutlets in an earthen pan and cover with vinegar and white wine.

  3. Add the head of garlic and salt, then marinate for a couple of hours or longer.

  4. Drain and dry the cutlets with a soft cloth.

  5. Sprinkle with parsley, thyme, and sage.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the cutlets in butter until cooked through, about 15‑20 minutes.

  2. Remove the cutlets and pour a little of the remaining marinade into the pan with the butter.

  3. Heat the sauce, then place the cutlets on a dish and pour the sauce over them.

  4. Garnish with sliced gherkins 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Wild boar + garlictop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  2. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + sagetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. White wine + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Under fillets of wild boar
Forms the main meat, cut into cutlets that cook through in butter.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade that tenderises the meat and adds a sharp note.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the marinade and the resulting pan sauce.
Head of garlic
Flavours the marinade with a pungent, aromatic note.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the cutlets and enriches the pan sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets until cooked through. Wild boar is lean and dense, so it dries out easily if overcooked. Frying over steady heat until just cooked through keeps the meat juicy and the butter from burning.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wild boar, vinegar, white wine, parsley, thyme, sage, butter):

  1. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  2. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  3. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wild boar, vinegar, white wine, parsley, thyme, sage, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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