Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Pork Cutlets a LA Sauce Robert
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Combine sliced onions, ham, peppercorns, salt, garlic, bay leaf, and butter in a stewpan.
Cook over gentle heat until browned.
Add consomme and boil for a few minutes.
Stir in plain sauce.
Cook until thickened, but not too thick.
Remove from heat.
Mix in mustard, vinegar, and oil.
Rub the sauce through a fine sieve.
Set aside to cool.
Cook and serve
Broil the pork cutlets over moderate heat until cooked.
Rub the cutlets with butter.
Warm the sauce gently without boiling before serving (if desired).
Serve with good gravy.
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.
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,053 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
-
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 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
- Pork cutlets
- Provide the main meat, which is cooked by broiling over moderate heat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour when browning the aromatics and enriches the cutlets.
- Plain sauce
- Forms the body of the sauce, giving it thickness and a smooth texture.
- Consomme
- Adds savoury meat flavour and liquid to the sauce as it reduces.
- Mustard
- Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the sauce.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and cuts its richness.
The step that matters
Cook until thickened, but not too thick. Sauce thickens further as it cools and reduces, so overcooking can leave it gluey or pasty. Stopping at the right point keeps it pourable once cooled and reheated.
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, ham, butter, sauce, mustard, vinegar):
- Capersfits better
- Garlicthe original
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Thymefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, ham, butter, sauce, mustard, vinegar. 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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