Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Add milk and enough flour to make a batter.
Fry and serve
Fry the veal cutlets in hot lard until browned.
Dip the fried veal in the batter and fry again.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard after removing the veal and serve on top of the veal.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + vealtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Egg + vealtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,845 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps it set firmly when fried.
- Flour
- Gives the batter body so it coats the veal and fries to a crisp layer.
- Milk
- Thins the flour and egg into a pourable batter that spreads evenly.
- Lard
- Hot frying fat that browns the cutlets and the batter and adds flavor.
The step that matters
Frying the battered veal in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough to set the batter quickly. If it is too cool, the coating soaks up fat, turns greasy and fails to crisp, while the meat may overcook before the batter browns.
“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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