Name: Veal Cutlets with Mushrooms or Truffles
Ingredients: 1½ pounds veal cutlets, ⅓ inch thick; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; 2 teaspoons baked flour; 12 medium-sized mushrooms; 1 clove garlic; 2 ounces butter; 6 to 8 truffles (optional); Lemon slices for serving

Why it works: Mushroom and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Veal Cutlets with Mushrooms or Truffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut veal into evenly shaped pieces.
Trim off the skin.
Season veal with salt, white pepper, and baked flour.
Trim, wash and wipe mushrooms.
Rub a pie dish with garlic.
Butter the dish well.

Bake and serve

Layer veal and mushrooms alternately in the dish.
Dot the top with small pieces of butter.
Cover with another dish.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1½ hours.
If using truffles, slice them and layer sliced truffles instead of mushrooms.
Serve hot with lemon slices on the side.

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.

Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,700 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,663 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal cutlets: Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during slow, covered baking.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, coating the dish and dotting the layers as it melts.
Mushrooms: Release moisture and add savoury flavour as they cook between the veal layers.
Baked flour: Lightly coats the veal, helping to thicken the juices that collect in the dish.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, mushroom, clove, garlic, butter, truffle):

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Parsleyfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, mushroom, clove, garlic, butter, truffle. 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.