Why it works: Veal and tomato work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 709 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin the veal cutlets and place them in a skillet.
Cover tightly and steam slowly in their own juice until cooked through.
Drain the cutlets on a plate.
Coat and fry
Dip each cutlet in beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown.
Serve
Season to taste and serve with tomato sauce or brown gravy 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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Veal + tomatotop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together709 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,845 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + tomatotop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,890 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
- Veal cutlets
- Serve as the main protein, becoming tender when steamed in their own juices.
- Egg
- Binds the cracker crumbs to the veal so the coating adheres during frying.
- Cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried in hot oil.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Oil that is not hot enough lets the crumb coating soak up fat and turn greasy instead of crisp. Frying at high heat browns the crumbs quickly, setting a crust before the cutlet dries out.
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg. 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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