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Peanut Cutlets

A savory cutlet made from peanut butter, egg, onion, mashed potato, and seasonings, coated in breadcrumbs and fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Peanut Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Add enough vegetable stock to make the mixture just moist enough to handle.

Shape and cook

  1. Mould and shape the mixture into cutlets.

  2. Coat the cutlets in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry or bake until golden brown.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Peanut + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together161 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Peanut + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,043 recipes

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

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Peanut butter
Provides the main body, rich flavour and fat that keeps the cutlets moist.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cutlets hold their shape when cooked.
Mashed potato
Adds bulk and softness, helping the mixture hold together and stay moist.
Grated onion
Adds savoury aroma and moisture to the cutlets.

The step that matters

Adding the vegetable stock. The stock must be added gradually, only until the mixture is just moist enough to handle. Too much liquid makes the cutlets soft and likely to fall apart, while too little leaves them crumbly and hard to shape.

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, onion, sauce, potato):

  1. Sesamefits about as well
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Peanutthe original
  4. Almondfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, onion, sauce, potato. 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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