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Tried Oyster Cutlets

A fried cutlet made from oysters, veal, suet, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Tried Oyster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Finely chop the oysters and veal.

  2. Pound them with chopped veal suet until smooth.

  3. Soak breadcrumbs in the oyster liquor.

  4. Mix the soaked breadcrumbs with the other ingredients.

  5. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and pounded mace.

  6. Bind the mixture with beaten egg yolks.

  7. Divide the mixture into equal portions.

  8. Shape each portion into a flat cutlet.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the cutlets in beaten egg and breadcrumbs to coat well.

  2. Heat butter in a flat stewpan until boiling.

  3. Fry the cutlets until browned.

  4. Drain the cutlets on paper for a minute.

Serve

  1. Arrange the cutlets on a hot dish with a folded napkin or ornamental paper.

  2. Garnish the cutlets with fried parsley.

  3. Serve.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Oysters
Provide the main savoury flavour of the cutlets.
Veal
Adds bulk and a meaty body that holds the cutlet together.
Eggs
Yolks bind the mixture so the cutlets hold their shape.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the oyster liquor and form a crisp coating when fried.
Veal suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets until browned. The butter must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly. If the fat is too cool, the breadcrumbs absorb it and turn greasy instead of crisp.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, veal, pepper, egg, butter. 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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