Name: Veal Cutlets, a LA Fried Oysters
Ingredients: veal, cut into small pieces (3-4 inches square); salt and pepper, to taste; 1 beaten egg; 1 cup fine rolled crackers; lard or butter, for frying

Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Veal Cutlets, a LA Fried Oysters

Ingredients

veal, cut into small pieces (3-4 inches square)
salt and pepper, to taste
1 beaten egg
1 cup fine rolled crackers
lard or butter, for frying

Directions

Prepare the coating

Dry the veal pieces with a towel and season with salt and pepper.
Set out the beaten egg and rolled crackers in separate dishes.
Dip each piece of veal in the egg, then coat with the rolled crackers.

Fry and make gravy

Heat enough lard or butter in a skillet to nearly cover the cutlets.
Fry the cutlets until golden brown.
To make a rich gravy, add a little boiling water to the skillet after the meat is done.

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.

Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,381 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,845 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

Veal: Forms the main body of the dish, cooked tender inside a crisp coating.
Beaten egg: Acts as a glue so the cracker crumbs stick to the veal.
Rolled crackers: Form a crisp, browned crust when fried in fat.
Lard or butter: Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Frying the cutlets until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to nearly cover the cutlets so the coating crisps and browns quickly rather than soaking up grease and turning soggy.

“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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Veal Cutlets, a LA Fried Oysters