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Veal Cutlets

Veal cutlets coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried with bacon, served with lemon garnish and thick brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shape veal into cutlets, about ½ inch thick.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg with pepper, salt, and thyme.

  3. Dip each cutlet into the egg mixture, then roll in breadcrumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the cutlets in hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Drain excess fat and place on a hot dish.

  3. Layer thin slices of bacon between each cutlet.

  4. Garnish with lemon pieces and serve with thick brown gravy.

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. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked tender inside a crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the seasoning and helps the breadcrumbs adhere to each cutlet.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried in hot fat.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor as it renders between the cutlets.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in hot fat until golden brown. Hot fat sears the breadcrumb coating quickly so it browns and crisps before the veal overcooks and the coating absorbs excess grease.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, pepper, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, pepper, 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.

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