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Italian Cutlets

A savory cutlet made from vermicelli, beetroot, onion, milk, and egg, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Italian Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vermicelli mixture

  1. Simmer the onion in the milk for 1 hour to flavor it well.

  2. Color the milk to a delicate pink with beetroot, then remove the onion and beetroot.

  3. Sprinkle in the vermicelli and boil for 10 minutes, or until soft.

  4. If too stiff, add a little more boiling milk or water.

Shape and fry

  1. Wet a flat dish and pour the mixture to about ½ inch thick.

  2. Allow to cool, then cut into the shape of cutlets.

  3. Dip in egg and breadcrumbs, then fry in a pan with a moderate amount of fat.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Clove + beetroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together285 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + beetroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,261 recipes

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

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

Vermicelli
Softens in the milk and sets as the starchy base that holds the cutlet shape.
Milk
Cooks the vermicelli to a soft, moist mass and carries the onion flavor.
Egg
Coats the cutlets so the breadcrumbs stick and the crust sets during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before cutting. The vermicelli mixture is soft and hot when spread. Cooling lets the starch set, so the cutlets hold their shape when cut and fried instead of falling apart.

Swap the beetroot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, pepper, egg, butter, milk. 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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