Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets with Vermicelli
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Remove all fat from the veal cutlets, leaving the small rib intact.
Season the cutlets.
Dip the cutlets in beaten egg.
Coat the cutlets with breadcrumbs.
Mix grated cheese with an equal amount of breadcrumbs.
Coat the cutlets again in egg and the cheese mixture.
Let the cutlets sit for two hours.
Fry and serve
Fry the cutlets in plenty of butter until golden brown.
Boil the vermicelli in salted water until cooked.
Drain the vermicelli.
Mix the cooked vermicelli with tomato sauce.
Arrange the vermicelli in the center of a serving platter.
Place the cutlets around the vermicelli.
Serve hot.
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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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,896 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,469 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Provide the main meat; trimming fat keeps the cooked cutlets from tasting greasy.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder so the breadcrumb coating adheres to the cutlets.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the meat during frying.
- Grated cheese
- Adds savory flavor and helps the coating brown and crisp when fried.
- Vermicelli
- Forms the base starch that is coated in tomato sauce and served with the cutlets.
- Tomato sauce
- Adds moisture, acidity and savory flavor to the pasta.
The step that matters
Fry the cutlets in plenty of butter until golden brown. Enough fat at steady heat browns the breadcrumb coating and cooks the veal through; too little fat or too high heat can scorch the crumbs before the meat is cooked.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, cheese, butter, sauce):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, cheese, butter, sauce. 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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