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 ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the veal
Fry the salt pork in hot fat and remove it from the pan.
Wipe the veal slices dry and fry them in the same hot fat until browned.
For another method, dip the veal slices in beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs.
Fry the breaded veal in hot fat for 15-20 minutes until browned.
Make the gravy
To make the gravy, add hot water and butter to the pan, then stir in flour and tomato ketchup.
Bring the gravy to a boil while stirring, then pour it over the cutlets.
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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Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Veal + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 cutlet, becoming tender and browned when fried.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumb coating to the veal so it adheres during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the veal.
- Flour
- Thickens the pan juices into a gravy.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the gravy.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy.
The step that matters
Bring the gravy to a boil while stirring. Flour thickens liquid only when heated enough for its starch to swell. Stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the gravy thickens smoothly without lumps.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, egg, bread, butter, flour, ketchup):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, egg, bread, butter, flour, ketchup. 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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