Name: Veal Cutlets Grilles with Mushrooms
Ingredients: Veal cutlets; Bread crumbs; Butter; ½ pint beef stock; 4-5 tablespoons espagnole or brown sauce; Lemon juice; Cayenne pepper (optional)

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal Cutlets Grilles with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Coat the veal cutlets in bread crumbs.
Broil the cutlets as directed.
In a pan, stew the mushrooms in butter for a few minutes until nearly done.
Add the beef stock and brown sauce to the mushrooms and let it reduce gently until moderately thick.
When ready to serve, squeeze in a little lemon juice and a small amount of cayenne pepper, if desired.
Stir the sauce well and pour it in the center of the cutlets, avoiding pouring it over the breaded cutlets.

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).