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Peanut Meatose

A thick, steamed peanut mixture made with cornstarch, tomato juice, peanut butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 315 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Peanut Meatose

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in the tomato juice.

  2. Add the peanut butter and salt, then stir for five minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into cans.

Steam

  1. Steam the cans for four to five hours.

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. Tomato + peanuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together315 recipes

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

  2. Peanut + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,754 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the mixture and sets it into a firm, sliceable texture as it cooks.
Peanut butter
Supplies the main body, fat and nutty flavour of the meatose.
Tomato juice
Hydrates the cornstarch so it can thicken, and adds acidity and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the peanut butter mixture. Peanut butter is thick and can settle or clump in the cornstarch liquid. Stirring for the full time keeps it evenly blended so the set loaf has a uniform texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peanut, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peanut, butter. 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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