Name: Mushroom Cutlets
Ingredients: 2 pounds tin mushrooms, minced fine; 2 large eggs, well beaten; 4 ounces grated bread crumbs; Salt and pepper to taste; Butter or oil for frying

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mushroom Cutlets

Ingredients

2 pounds tin mushrooms, minced fine
2 large eggs, well beaten
4 ounces grated bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter or oil for frying

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

In a bowl, combine minced mushrooms, beaten eggs, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Stir until smooth.
Mold the mixture into small flat cutlets.
Dip each cutlet in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

Fry

Fry the cutlets in butter or oil until brown.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Provide the main body and savory flavor of the cutlets.
Eggs: Bind the mixture together and help the coating adhere.
Bread crumbs: Add body and absorb moisture, and form a crisp coating for browning.

“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.