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Oyster Cutlets a LA Chef

Oyster cutlets made from finely chopped veal and oysters, bound with suet, bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Oyster Cutlets a LA Chef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop veal and oysters very finely, then pound them together in a mortar.

  2. Add veal suet, soaked bread crumbs, salt, white pepper, and lemon juice; mix thoroughly.

  3. Incorporate the beaten eggs and pound a little more.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into small cutlets.

  2. Dip each cutlet in egg and then in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the cutlets in butter until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Drain well and serve hot, garnished with parsley and lemon slices.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + buttertop 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

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and firm bulk of the cutlet.
Oysters
Adds the distinctive briny flavour and moisture to the filling.
Veal suet
Adds fat that keeps the cutlets moist and tender as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Absorb oyster liquor and add softness, while the outer crumbs give a crisp golden crust.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the cutlets hold their shape.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in butter until golden brown. The cutlets are delicate and held together mainly by egg. Frying over moderate heat lets the crumb coating brown and set before the inside overcooks, and a cutlet fried too hot can scorch outside while staying raw or loose inside.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, oyster, bread, lemon, egg, butter, 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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