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Pork Cutlets

Pork cutlets are breaded pork pieces fried in clarified butter and lard, served with mashed potatoes and sauce.

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 ↓

Pork Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Cut the cutlets from the loin of pork and scrape the top part of the bone.

  2. Brush the cutlets with egg.

  3. Sprinkle the cutlets with breadcrumbs mixed with minced sage, salt, and pepper. Drop a little clarified butter on the cutlets. Press the crumbs down firmly.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan.

  2. Lay the cutlets in the pan and fry until light brown on both sides.

  3. Remove the cutlets and place them before the fire to dry.

  4. Serve on mashed potatoes with your choice of sauce, such as tomato sauce or pickled gherkins.

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. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin or fore-loin
Provides the meat that forms the cutlet itself, the main body of the dish.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick to the surface of the pork.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying and protects the meat.
Minced sage
Adds a savory, aromatic herb flavor to the breadcrumb coating.
Clarified butter
Adds fat and richness that helps the coating brown and taste rich.

The step that matters

Press the crumbs down firmly. Loose crumbs fall off in the hot fat, leaving bare meat that can dry out and burn. Firm pressing bonds the coating to the egg-brushed surface so it stays intact while frying.

Swap the sage

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

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

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

More pork cutlets recipes

Breaded 11Broiled 7Grilled 5Minced 3with Gherkins 3with Gravy 3 See all 37 →

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