Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Veal Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Season the veal chops with pepper and coarse sea salt, and let them sit for one hour.
Beat the eggs and mix in the flour.
Crush the crackers into fine crumbs.
Coat and cook
Dip the chops first in the egg mixture, then coat them in the cracker crumbs.
Fry the chops slowly until they are thoroughly cooked and nicely browned.
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,845 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,886 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 chops
- The main protein, which browns and cooks through during frying.
- Eggs
- Bind the coating to the meat so the crumbs stick during frying.
- Flour
- Helps the egg mixture cling to the chops and aids even browning.
- Crackers
- Form the crisp, browned outer crust once fried.
The step that matters
Fry the chops slowly. Slow frying cooks the thick chops through to the centre before the coating over-darkens. Fast heat can brown the crumbs while the meat stays underdone inside.
“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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