Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and brown
Trim the veal cutlets neatly and remove the bones.
Lard the cutlets and place them in a frying pan with butter over medium heat.
Brown the cutlets on both sides.
Make the sauce and cook
Sprinkle flour over the cutlets and moisten with stock.
Add fine herbs, carrots, onions, mushrooms, salt, and cloves.
Cook until the cutlets are done.
Serve
Serve the cutlets with the vegetables in the center.
Skim and strain the sauce, then pour it over the cutlets.
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.
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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Carrot + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,796 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal neck cutlets
- Provide the main meat, which becomes tender as it cooks gently in the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat for browning the cutlets and carries savory flavor through the pan.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce once stock is added.
- Stock
- Moistens the pan and forms the liquid base of the sauce.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy flavor and moisture to the sauce as they cook.
The step that matters
Brown the cutlets on both sides. Browning creates flavorful compounds through the Maillard reaction. Pale, crowded or wet cutlets steam instead, losing the color and depth the sauce builds on.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, carrot, onion, mushroom):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Celeryfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, carrot, onion, mushroom. 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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