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Oatmeal Cutlets-cheese Sauce

A savory dish of oatmeal cutlets topped with a cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oatmeal Cutlets-cheese Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Brown the onion in 4 tablespoons of fat.

  2. Add 6 tablespoons of barley flour and vegetable stock to make a thick binding.

  3. Stir in the cooked oatmeal, parsley, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste.

  4. Chill the mixture, then form it into cutlets.

  5. Roll the cutlets in egg and breadcrumbs.

Bake and make the sauce

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, basting twice with vegetable oil.

  2. Use the remaining fat and flour to make a roux for the cheese sauce.

  3. Add skimmed milk, cheese, salt, and paprika to taste.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Barley + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Forms the bulk of the cutlet and gives it a hearty, starchy body.
Egg
Binds the cutlets and helps the coating set during baking.
Barley flour
Thickens the binding with starch so the mixture holds its shape.
Skimmed milk
Forms the base of the cheese sauce, giving it a smooth, liquid body.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the cheese sauce.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture before forming the cutlets. Chilling firms the starch and binder so the mixture holds its shape. A warm, soft mixture is likely to slump or crack when shaped and baked.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, barley, corn, parsley, tomato, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, barley, corn, parsley, tomato, egg, pepper. 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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