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Cold Meat Turnovers

A pastry filled with chopped meat, catsup, and herbs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cold Meat Turnovers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.

  3. Add melted butter and cream, and mix until a dough forms.

  4. Roll the dough thin and cut into circles of desired size.

Fill and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, combine chopped meat, catsup, herbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. Place a spoonful of the meat mixture on one half of each dough circle. Fold the other half over and pinch the edges to seal.

  3. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

  4. Serve hot or cold.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the dough's main structure once mixed with liquid fat and cream.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough's acidity to help it rise and brown in the oven.
Melted butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and helps it turn golden.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the dough come together.
Fresh meat or game
Forms the savoury filling that cooks through inside the sealed dough.
Catsup
Adds sweetness and acidity that season the meat filling.

The step that matters

Pinch the edges to seal. A tight seal keeps the meat juices inside while baking, so the filling stays moist and the turnovers do not leak or dry out in the oven.

“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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