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Beef Omelet

A baked loaf of finely chopped beef mixed with crackers, eggs, herbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Omelet

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

  1. Chop the beef very fine.

  2. Mix the chopped beef with the rolled crackers, beaten eggs, sage, summer savory, salt, and pepper.

  3. Shape the mixture into an omelet-like loaf.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, basting often with butter.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Beef + summer savorytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the bulk of the loaf and provides the savory, meaty flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm as it cooks.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and help hold the loaf together while it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and browns the surface while basting.

The step that matters

Shaping the loaf. The mixture is soft and loose before baking. If it is not shaped evenly and firmly, it can crack or cook unevenly, so the eggs and crackers need to hold it together.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, butter, sage, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, butter, sage, 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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