Name: Venison Cutlets
Ingredients: slices of venison; coarse sea salt; black pepper; melted butter or olive oil; soft stale bread crumbs

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Venison Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Clean and trim the venison slices.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Brush with melted butter or olive oil.
Roll in soft stale bread crumbs.
Place in a broiler and broil for five minutes, or sauté in butter.
Serve with Port Wine Sauce.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together957 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Venison + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).