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Preserve

To Broil or Fry Pork Cutlets

Thin pork cutlets seasoned and either broiled or fried, served with optional egg and breadcrumb coating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Broil or Fry Pork Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Cut the pork loin into ½ inch thick cutlets and trim them neatly.

  2. Remove some or all of the fat if desired.

Season and cook

  1. Season the cutlets with black pepper or cayenne.

  2. Broil the cutlets over a moderate fire for 15 to 18 minutes.

  3. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt on them just before serving.

  4. Optionally, dip the cutlets in egg.

  5. Coat the cutlets with bread crumbs mixed with minced sage before frying.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + sagetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Loin of pork
Forms the main body of the cutlets, and its lean meat sets firm and browns as it cooks.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the bread crumb coating sticks to the cutlets.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned outer coating around the pork.
Minced sage
Adds a savoury, herbal aroma to the crumb coating.

The step that matters

Broiling the cutlets. Lean pork has little fat to protect it, so over-broiling for the full time can dry the meat out. Checking for doneness early keeps the cutlets moist.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, egg, bread. 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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