Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Meat Canning
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Cook the beef meat pieces for 10 minutes.
In 2‑lb cans, layer 5 oz of meat and 6 oz of carrots.
Fill the cans with soup made from concentrated beef essence and mushroom catsup.
Prepare a batter with flour, salt, white pepper, mace, and cayenne pepper, and cook in a jacketed kettle for 10 minutes.
Combine the meat mixture with the soup in the kettle and cook for another 10 minutes.
Strain the soup before filling the cans, then wipe and cap them, leaving the center hole open.
Process and finish
Process the cans in a retort for 1 hour 45 minutes at 8 lbs pressure, opening the exhaust once or twice to drain condensed water.
Allow the pressure to exhaust slowly, then quickly stop the vents to prevent air absorption.
Return the cans to the retort and boil for 2 hours at 9 lbs pressure, keeping the exhaust open.
Withdraw the cans and let them cool on trays, then wash them.
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.
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Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,695 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,796 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Provides the main meaty flavor and chewy, tender bite of the filling.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and a firm texture that holds up through long pressure processing.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup into a batter-based sauce that coats the meat and carrots.
- Mushroom catsup
- Adds savory depth and umami to the soup.
The step that matters
Venting the retort before processing. Condensed water and trapped air must be drained from the retort and cans; incomplete venting leaves cold pockets that can underprocess the contents, and air drawn back into cooling cans can spoil them.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, mushroom, flour, mace, pepper):
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, mushroom, flour, mace, 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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