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To Broil or Fry Pork Cutlets

Pork cutlets seasoned with pepper, cayenne, and salt, optionally breaded or floured, then broiled or fried and served with gravy or sauce Robert.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Broil or Fry Pork Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut pork loin into ½ inch thick cutlets and trim them neatly.

  2. Remove excess fat if desired.

  3. Dredge cutlets with pepper or cayenne.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil over a moderate fire (350°F / 175°C) for 15 to 18 minutes.

  2. Sprinkle with fine salt just before serving.

  3. For a breaded version, dip cutlets in egg, then coat with bread crumbs mixed with minced sage.

  4. To fry, flour the cutlets and season with salt and pepper before cooking.

  5. Serve with gravy made in the pan or with sauce Robert.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. 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

Pork loin
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, juicy meat when cut into cutlets.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the cutlets.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the breaded cutlets.
Flour
Dries the cutlet surface and helps create a light browned crust when frying.

The step that matters

Broil for the stated time without overcooking. Thin pork cutlets dry out quickly under high heat, because lean muscle fibres lose moisture as their internal temperature rises. Checking doneness near the end of the time keeps them juicy.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, egg, bread, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, egg, bread, flour. 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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