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Chicken Cutlets

A fried chicken cutlet coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Chop the chicken finely.

  2. In a pan, fry the shallot and flour in the butter without browning.

  3. Add the white sauce and bring to a boil.

  4. Stir in the chicken, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and heat until hot.

  5. Add the egg and cook for a few more minutes.

Shape and fry

  1. Cool the mixture until firm, then shape into cutlets.

  2. Coat the cutlets in egg and breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry in deep fat until golden brown.

  4. Arrange on a dish, garnish with fried parsley, and serve hot.

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. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Forms the main body of the cutlets and gives them their meaty texture.
White sauce
Binds the chicken together and adds moisture so the mixture can be shaped.
Butter
Enriches the shallot and flour base and carries flavour through the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and shallot mixture, helping the filling hold together.
Egg
Sets during cooking to firm the filling and helps the breadcrumb coating adhere.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture until firm before shaping. A warm, soft filling will not hold its shape and may split or slump in the fat. Chilling the mixture until firm lets the starch and egg set, so the cutlets keep their form during coating and frying.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, sauce, butter, flour, egg, shallot, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, sauce, butter, flour, egg, shallot, pepper. 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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