Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Egg Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut cold boiled eggs into thick slices with a sharp knife.
Dip each slice into raw beaten egg.
Roll the slices in seasoned bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry in butter until browned, turning each piece as it cooks.
Remove from the frying pan immediately after cooking and place on a hot dish.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled eggs
- Form the main body of the cutlet, staying firm enough to slice and coat cleanly.
- Raw beaten egg
- Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs stick to each slice.
- Seasoned bread crumbs
- Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crumb coating.
The step that matters
Fry in butter until browned, turning each piece as it cooks. Butter browns at a moderate heat and can burn quickly, leaving the crumbs bitter before the coating is evenly golden. Turning each piece lets all sides brown evenly and cook through without scorching.
“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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