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Halibut Cutlets

Halibut cutlets coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried in lard or beef dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Halibut Cutlets

Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Halibut Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the halibut cutlets with a dry cloth and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  2. Prepare a pan with beaten egg yolk and a large dish with grated bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat fresh lard or clarified beef dripping in a frying pan over a clear fire until it boils.

  2. Dip the cutlets into the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the cutlets until they are light brown.

  4. Serve hot with gravy in the bottom of the dish.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Halibut
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a firm, flaky texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Lard or beef dripping
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Frying the cutlets until light brown. Fat that is hot enough sets the crumb coating quickly and browns it, while fat that is too cool soaks in and makes the coating greasy and likely to fall off. Keep the cutlets from crowding so the temperature holds.

“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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