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Beef Cutlets

Minced cold beef, bacon and onion bound with egg yolk and gravy, shaped into cutlets, coated and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Cutlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mince the beef, bacon, and onion.

  2. Mix the minced ingredients with egg yolk, gravy, herbs, salt, and pepper until smooth.

  3. Shape the mixture into cutlets.

Coat and bake

  1. Dip each cutlet in melted butter and dredge with flour.

  2. Let the cutlets rest for 1 hour in a cool place.

  3. Dip each cutlet in the remaining egg yolk, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  4. Fold each cutlet in greased paper and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the cutlet and gives it its meaty texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the minced mixture so it holds together when shaped and coated.
Bacon fat
Adds fat that keeps the cutlets moist and adds savory flavor during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the coating brown as it cooks.
Breadcrumbs
Form the crisp outer crust that browns during baking.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth of flavor to the mixture.

The step that matters

Rest the cutlets for 1 hour in a cool place. Chilling firms the fat and the egg-bound mixture, so the shaped cutlets hold their form and the coating stays attached during baking.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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