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Vegetable Cutlets

Vegetable cutlets made from diced turnip, potato, peas, and a white sauce, coated in egg and crumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Steam or boil the diced turnip and potato until tender, then drain.

  2. Wash the peas and let them stand in cold water for 30 minutes, then drain well.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour, and stir to make a thick white sauce.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring until the sauce is smooth and thickened.

  3. Season the sauce with salt, white pepper, and onion juice.

  4. Carefully mix in the turnips, potatoes, and half of the peas.

Shape and fry

  1. Butter a shallow pan and spread half of the reserved peas on the bottom.

  2. Pour the vegetable mixture over the peas and top with the remaining peas, pressing them in lightly.

  3. Set aside until cold and firm.

  4. Turn out onto a board, cut into wedges, dip each in beaten egg, and roll in dry crumbs.

  5. Fry in hot oil until golden brown and decorate each cutlet with a green frill.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Turnip + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

White turnip
Provides bulk and a mild body that holds the cutlet mixture together.
Irish potato
Starch thickens the mixture and gives a soft, cohesive texture once cooled.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a white sauce that binds the vegetables.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it smoothness and richness.
Egg
Beaten egg coats the cutlets and sets to help the crumbs adhere when frying.

The step that matters

Set aside until cold and firm. The sauce and starches must cool and set fully; cutting or dipping a warm mixture makes it crumble or fall apart in the hot oil.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, potato, peas, butter, flour, milk, onion):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, potato, peas, butter, flour, milk, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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