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Large Skate Dressed Like Veal Cutlets

Skate cutlets coated in egg and bread crumbs, fried and served with rich brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Large Skate Dressed Like Veal Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the skate into square pieces.

  2. Roll the pieces in beaten eggs.

  3. Coat them in grated bread mixed with chopped parsley, pepper, and salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry in oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve with rich brown gravy.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Skate
Provides the main body of the cutlet, cooking to a flaky, tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the breadcrumb coating to the fish so it adheres during frying.
Grated bread
Forms a crisp, golden coating that protects the fish while it fries.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a touch of colour to the coating.

The step that matters

Fry in oil until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to brown the crumb quickly; if it is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy while the fish overcooks.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

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