Name: Veal Cutlets, or Collops, a LA Frak9aise.
Ingredients: 2 lbs veal, cut into small, thin, round pieces; 1 teaspoon fine salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg; 2 oz good butter; JEspagnole sauce or gravy (optional); lemon juice (to taste); cayenne (to taste)

Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Cutlets, or Collops, a LA Frak9aise.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Sprinkle the veal pieces with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and pour it over the veal.
Set the pan aside until ready to cook.

Cook and serve

Fry the veal over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until lightly browned.
Transfer the veal to a hot dish.
Sauce with Espagnole or a quick gravy flavored with lemon juice and cayenne.

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.

Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,375 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Veal: Forms the tender meat base that browns lightly in the butter.
Butter: Carries flavor and helps the veal brown and stay moist while frying.

The step that matters

Fry the veal over medium heat. Veal pieces are thin, so they cook quickly. Too much heat can scorch the butter and toughen the meat before it browns evenly. Medium heat gives a light, even browning while keeping the meat tender.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, nutmeg, butter, sauce, lemon):

Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
Marjoramfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, nutmeg, butter, sauce, lemon. 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Veal Patties50 recipes

Beef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

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Veal Cutlets, or Collops, a LA Frak9aise.