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Chicken Cutlets

Chicken cutlets made from finely chopped chicken mixed with seasonings, coated in cracker crumbs, chilled, then deep‑fried and served with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chicken mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped chicken, onion juice, celery salt, pepper, and parsley.

  2. In a saucepan, heat cream or milk with baking soda until scalding.

  3. Whisk in butter and corn starch until thickened, about 1 minute.

  4. Stir in the seasoned chicken and heat until smoking hot.

  5. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then gradually mix in the hot chicken mixture.

  6. Pour into a dish and chill until firm.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape into cutlet forms using your hands or a cutter.

  2. Dip each cutlet in egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  3. Chill on ice for 1‑2 hours before frying in deep boiling fat.

  4. Serve with white sauce.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Forms the bulk of the cutlet and supplies the meaty texture.
Eggs
Bind the chicken mixture so it holds its shape and sets when cooked.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and richness, making the thickened mixture tender rather than dry.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream mixture into a paste that firms up when chilled.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating during deep frying.

The step that matters

Chill until firm before frying. The hot mixture is soft and sticky. Thorough chilling lets the starch and egg set so the cutlets keep their shape, and cold cutlets coated in crumbs resist breaking apart in hot fat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, pepper, parsley, cream, butter, corn):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, pepper, parsley, cream, butter, corn. 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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