Why it works: Walnut and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,149 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal
Cut the cutlets from the leg and flatten them with a chopper.
Fry the veal and bacon
Fry the bacon in a frying pan until nicely browned, then transfer to a stew pan.
Pour most of the bacon fat from the frying pan into a plate.
Fry the veal cutlets in the remaining fat until browned on both sides, then add to the bacon.
Make the sauce and finish
Dust flour in the frying pan, add gravy, mushroom ketchup, and walnut ketchup, and let it boil for 1-2 minutes while stirring.
Strain the sauce into the stew pan with the veal and bacon, then squeeze in lemon juice and season with white pepper.
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.
-
Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Mushroom + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together763 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
-
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,446 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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, becoming tender when cooked gently in sauce.
- Streaky bacon
- Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the pan and the sauce.
- Flour
- Dusted into the pan fat to thicken the gravy into a smooth sauce.
- Gravy
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the other flavourings.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.
- Walnut ketchup
- Adds a dark, rich savoury depth to the sauce.
The step that matters
Frying the veal until browned on both sides. Browning builds the Maillard flavour in the meat and fat left in the pan, which becomes the base for the sauce. Pale, under-browned cutlets give a flat taste and the flour will not toast properly in the pan.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, mushroom, ketchup, walnut, lemon):
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, mushroom, ketchup, walnut, lemon. 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.
More veal cutlets recipes
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Veal Patties50 recipes
Beef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.