Skip to main content
Main

Cutlets with Reform Sauce

Cutlets served with a sauce made from egg yolk, vinegar, oil, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cutlets with Reform Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Remove the yolk from the hard boiled egg and pound it.

  2. Gradually add vinegar and salad oil to the yolk, mixing well.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the cream.

Plate and serve

  1. Arrange the cutlets around a wall of mashed potatoes on a plate.

  2. Pour the sauce around the cutlets and garnish with the egg white.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  2. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,248 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled egg yolk
Pounded yolk forms the base of the sauce, giving it body and a rich, smooth texture.
Salad oil
Emulsifies into the yolk with vinegar, giving the sauce a thick, creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk and oil and balances the sauce.
Cream
Thins the sauce and adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Gradually add vinegar and salad oil to the yolk. Adding the oil and vinegar slowly while mixing lets the fat disperse into tiny droplets held by the yolk's lecithin. Adding too fast can split the sauce into greasy, separated layers.

“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.

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMeat CakesMeat Cakes35 recipes