Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Fry and coat
Fry the veal cutlets until well done.
Remove the cutlets and dip them in the beaten egg.
Coat the cutlets in rolled crackers mixed with coarse sea salt.
Fry again, turning to brown each side nicely.
Make the gravy and serve
Make a gravy by mixing water and flour in the frying pan and pour it over the cutlets.
Season to taste, and serve with tomatoes if desired.
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Veal + tomatotop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together709 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + tomatotop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,065 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,845 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,886 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Veal cutlets
- Form the main body of the dish and brown well during frying.
- Beaten egg
- Acts as a binder so the cracker coating sticks to the cutlets.
- Rolled crackers
- Form a crisp, browned crust when fried.
- Flour
- Thickens the pan liquid into a gravy.
The step that matters
Frying the coated cutlets again. The egg and cracker coating can burn or fall off if the heat is too high or the cutlets are moved too early. Moderate heat and turning only once the coating has set let each side brown evenly and stay attached.
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, flour. 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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