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Brain Cutlets

Brain cutlets are fried pieces of brain coated in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, served hot with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brain Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Wash the brains and soak them in cold water until white.

  2. Parboil the brains in a small saucepan for about 15 minutes until tender.

  3. Thoroughly drain the brains and place them on a board.

  4. Cut the brains into small pieces with a knife.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece into flour, then roll them in beaten egg and bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the pieces in butter or clarified dripping until golden.

Serve

  1. Serve very hot with gravy.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brains
Form the main body of the cutlets; their soft texture becomes tender when parboiled.
Flour
Dry surface that helps the egg coating grip the brain pieces.
Egg
Binds the flour and bread crumbs so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer layer that browns during frying.
Butter or clarified dripping
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Drain the brains thoroughly. Excess water left on the parboiled pieces dilutes the flour and egg coating, so it will not stick well and will steam rather than brown when fried.

“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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