Name: Veal Cutlets, in a Fine Pickle
Ingredients: Veal cutlets; Chopped lard or butter; Sweet herbs (hashed fine); Vinegar; Coarse sea salt; Pepper; Bread crumbs

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Veal Cutlets, in a Fine Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Trim the veal cutlets and arrange them in a stewpan.
Add a little chopped lard or butter, sweet herbs, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Place the stewpan over gentle heat and turn the cutlets occasionally until the sauce thickens.
Once nearly cooked, remove the cutlets and let them drain.
Rub the cutlets with bread crumbs.
Half an hour before serving, broil the cutlets on a gridiron over gentle heat to avoid burning the breading.
Arrange the broiled cutlets on a plate and pour any remaining sauce over them.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,056 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

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