Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cutlets
Trim the veal cutlets into proper shape and beat them with a rolling pin until the fibers are broken.
Flour the cutlets well to prevent gravy from escaping.
Fry and make the sauce
Fry the cutlets in a pan over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes until they are amber brown and cooked through.
Transfer the cutlets to a hot dish and pour off the fat from the pan.
Add fresh butter to the pan and melt it. Stir in the flour and cook until well-colored.
Gradually add the gravy or boiling water, then season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Bring the sauce to a boil and pour it over the cutlets.
Serve
Serve with fried forcemeat balls or garnished with ham or bacon if desired.
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.
-
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,446 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 cutlets
- Provide the main protein, which becomes tender and cooked through when fried.
- Flour
- Coats the cutlets to hold the gravy and helps thicken the sauce when cooked in butter.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the pan and helps the flour cook into the sauce base.
- Gravy or boiling water
- Forms the liquid of the sauce that moistens and flavours the cutlets.
The step that matters
Flour the cutlets well. Flour coats the surface so the liquid sauce clings to the meat instead of running off, and it helps the sauce thicken and the cutlets brown.
“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.
More veal cutlets recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Veal Patties50 recipes
Beef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes