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Oyster Cutlets

Small cutlets made from veal and oysters, breaded and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Oyster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the veal and oysters very small and pound them in a mortar.

  2. Soak the bread crumbs in the oyster liquor.

  3. Mix the soaked bread crumbs with the veal and oysters.

  4. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and mace.

  5. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the mixture, mixing thoroughly.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into small cutlets.

  2. Dip the cutlets in egg.

  3. Coat the cutlets with bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cutlets in boiling lard or fat until light brown.

  2. Drain the cutlets well.

  3. Serve hot on cut paper with fried parsley.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 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

Lean cooked veal
Provides the main body and bulk of the cutlet mixture.
Oysters
Add the distinctive briny flavour and soft texture to the filling.
Egg yolks
Bind the minced mixture together so the cutlets hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Soak up oyster liquor to add moisture and help bind the filling, then form a crisp golden coating.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in boiling lard or fat until light brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly; if it is too cool, the cutlets absorb grease and turn soggy before a crisp golden crust forms.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, oyster, bread, pepper, egg, parsley. 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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