Why it works: Lemon and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 579 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim veal cutlets neatly from the best end of the neck.
Season with coarse sea salt.
Cook and serve
Grill the cutlets until cooked through.
Serve on a bed of watercress.
Garnish with lemon cut into 8 pieces.
Optionally, serve with butter or a sharp sauce made from beef stock and pickled gherkins.
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.
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Lemon + watercresstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together579 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,580 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
- Veal cutlets
- The main protein, which cooks quickly and turns firm and browned on the grill.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the veal.
- Beef stock
- Provides savoury depth in the optional sharp sauce served with the cutlets.
The step that matters
Grill the cutlets until cooked through. Veal cutlets are thin and lean, so they dry out quickly over high heat. Cooking them just until cooked through keeps them moist and tender while the surface browns.
“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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