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Egg Cutlets

Egg cutlets made from chopped hard‑boiled eggs, ham, parsley, cream, white sauce, and egg yolks, coated and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Egg Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove shells from hard-boiled eggs and chop finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine chopped eggs, ham, parsley, cream, white sauce, egg yolks, pepper, and salt.

  3. Stir mixture over low heat until it thickens, then transfer to a plate to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Form mixture into small cutlets.

  2. Coat each cutlet in flour, dip in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry cutlets in hot oil until golden brown, then drain on paper towels.

  2. Serve arranged in a circle on a serving dish with parsley in the center.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Hard-boiled eggs
Form the bulk of the filling, giving the cutlets body and a firm, sliceable texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and enrich it, helping it set when gently heated.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess so the filling stays tender rather than dry.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and smooth.
Cooked ham
Contributes savory, salty flavor to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when the cutlets are fried.

The step that matters

Stir the filling over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures and can scramble if the heat is too high. Gentle heat thickens the mixture into a firm, cohesive filling that holds its shape when formed and fried.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, sauce, ham, pepper, flour, bread. 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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