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Cheese Cutlets

Cheese cutlets are small fried cheese patties coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, pound the grated cheese and butter together until well combined.

  2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Season the mixture with cayenne, mustard, and salt to taste.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into very small cutlets.

  2. Dip each cutlet in the egg white, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the cutlets in very hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with strips of toast and garnish with fried parsley.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and fat-rich body of the cutlet mixture.
Butter
Binds the cheese into a pliable mixture and adds richness.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it so the cutlets hold their shape.
Egg white
Acts as a glue so the breadcrumbs adhere to each cutlet.

The step that matters

Frying the cutlets in very hot oil. Very hot oil quickly sets the breadcrumb coating and browns it before the cheese inside melts and leaks out. Oil that is not hot enough lets the coating absorb grease and the cutlets fall apart.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, egg, 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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