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Beef Cutlets in Paper

Beef cutlets coated in flour and breadcrumbs, wrapped in parchment paper, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 587 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Beef Cutlets in Paper

six cutlets
Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cutlets

  1. Combine minced beef, bacon, mushroom, chives or shallot, salt, pepper, cayenne, mustard, egg yolk, beef gravy, and sherry in a bowl.

  2. Mix the mixture well.

  3. Form the mixture into six cutlets.

  4. Dip each cutlet into melted butter.

  5. Dredge each cutlet lightly with flour.

  6. Refrigerate the cutlets for 1 hour.

Coat and wrap

  1. In another bowl, mix bread crumbs with sweet herbs, salt, and grated nutmeg.

  2. Dip each cutlet into beaten egg.

  3. Coat each cutlet with the seasoned bread crumbs.

  4. Butter six half-sheets of parchment paper.

  5. Place a cutlet on each sheet.

  6. Fold the edges to form a small packet.

  7. Place the packets on a baking sheet.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 25 minutes.

  2. Serve the cutlets in the paper.

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. Chive + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together587 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Mushroom + chivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Provides the main body of the cutlet, holding its shape once minced and formed.
Egg yolk
Binds the minced meat together and adds richness to the cutlet's texture.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer coating that protects the cutlet while it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture, helping the cutlet brown and taste rich.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour, keeping the lean meat moist as it cooks.

The step that matters

Refrigerate the cutlets before coating. Chilling firms the fat and the egg-bound meat so the cutlets hold their shape through dipping and coating instead of falling apart.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mushroom, chive, pepper, egg, sherry, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mushroom, chive, pepper, egg, sherry, 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.

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