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Pork Cutlets

Pork cutlets fried in butter and stewed in a sauce of vinegar, onion, tomato sauce, and brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Cut the pork loin into cutlets, bone, and trim them neatly.

  2. Fry the cutlets in butter until light brown.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, finely chopped onion, tomato sauce, and enough brown gravy to taste.

  2. Stew the cutlets in the sauce for five minutes.

  3. Serve the cutlets arranged nicely on a plate.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
Forms the main meat; cutting and frying it gives the cutlets their savoury, browned surface.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the cutlets and adds rich flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the meat and gravy.
Onion
Adds aroma and a mild sweetness as it softens into the sauce.
Tomato sauce
Provides acidity, sweetness and body to the sauce.
Brown gravy
Adds savoury depth and moisture to the sauce the cutlets stew in.

The step that matters

Frying the cutlets in butter until light brown. Frying over heat drives the browning reaction that builds flavour on the surface. Stopping at light brown keeps the meat from drying out before it stews in the sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, pepper, vinegar, tomato, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, pepper, vinegar, tomato, 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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