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Beef Cannelon

A canned mixture of cooked chopped beef, beaten eggs, bread crumbs, parsley, tartaric acid, salt and pepper, sealed in cans and processed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Beef Cannelon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Plunge the beef pieces into a boiling solution of 3 lbs coarse sea salt and 12 gallons of water.

  2. Cook until moderately well done.

  3. Chop the beef finely.

Make the mixture

  1. Dissolve the tartaric acid in 1 pint of water.

  2. Separate the eggs.

  3. Beat the eggs.

  4. Mix all ingredients together.

  5. Pack the mixture tightly into 1 lb flat cans.

Process and seal

  1. Cap the cans.

  2. Process for 55 minutes at 250°F (120°C).

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

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

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main protein, which sets firm and gives the filling its substance when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and bread crumbs together and help the filling set when heated.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body so it holds together after processing.
Green parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a little color to the filling.

The step that matters

Pack the mixture tightly into the cans. Tight packing removes air pockets so heat reaches the filling evenly during processing and the finished mixture holds its shape without weak spots.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, bread, 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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