Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,241 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: breadcrumbs
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Trim the cutlets and coat them in breadcrumbs.
Fry the cutlets in hot fat until golden brown.
Make the puree
In a saucepan, combine the haricot beans and cooked onions with butter, season with pepper and salt, and heat through.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.
Serve
Serve the cutlets with the bean and onion puree on the side.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Beans + oniontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,241 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,463 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Beans + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Haricot beans
- Form the bulk of the puree, giving it body and a soft, smooth texture once sieved.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and moisture to the puree, softening its flavour.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the puree.
- Breadcrumbs (in the method)
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when the cutlets are fried.
The step that matters
Fry the cutlets in hot fat until golden brown. Breadcrumb coatings brown through Maillard reactions at high surface heat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy and pale instead of crisp.
Flavor stand-ins for the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sauce, onion, butter, pepper):
- Beansthe original
- Peasabout as good a flavor fit
- Lima beansabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sauce, onion, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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