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Mock Veal Cutlets

Lentil cutlets made with lentils, butter, breadcrumbs, tomatoes, and peanuts, served with mashed potatoes and brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Veal Cutlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lentils

  1. Wash the lentils and soak them overnight.

  2. Strain and parboil the lentils in fresh boiling water for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain and cook the lentils until soft in enough boiling water to cover them.

  4. Rub the cooked lentils through a sieve.

Make the cutlets

  1. Add the butter, bread crumbs, tomatoes (with a pinch of baking soda), and all other ingredients to the lentils.

  2. Blend everything thoroughly and form into cutlets.

  3. Dip the cutlets in egg.

  4. Dip the cutlets in fine bread crumbs.

  5. Place the cutlets in a well-greased baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Brown the cutlets in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Serve the cutlets arranged around a mound of mashed potatoes with brown sauce.

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. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Form the main bulk and body of the cutlet mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the cutlets brown in the oven.
Fine graham-bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold its shape.
Strained tomatoes
Add moisture and a mild acidity that brightens the flavor.
Blanched and chopped peanuts
Add texture and a nutty flavor to the cutlets.

The step that matters

Cook the lentils until soft. Fully softened lentils mash smoothly and bind with the crumbs and butter. Firm lentils leave a grainy, crumbly mixture that falls apart when shaped and baked.

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, celery, butter, onion, bread, tomato, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, celery, butter, onion, bread, tomato, pepper. 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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