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Left-over Beef-roasts

A casserole of minced leftover beef topped with a mashed potato mixture and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Left-over Beef-roasts

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine minced beef, onion, salt, pepper, and enough gravy to moisten without making it sloppy.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a 1½-quart baking dish and smooth the top.

Add the potato topping

  1. In another bowl, mix mashed potatoes, melted butter, milk, beaten egg, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Spread the potato mixture over the meat layer.

Bake and brown

  1. Cover with a plate and bake for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the cover and brown the top.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beef
Forms the savoury meat base of the casserole.
Mashed potatoes
Form the soft, creamy topping that bakes over the meat layer.
Egg
Helps the potato topping set and hold its shape when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed potato topping.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the potato topping.
Cold beef gravy
Moistens the meat so it stays juicy rather than dry.

The step that matters

Covering, then uncovering to brown the top. Baking covered first traps steam so the filling heats through without drying out. Removing the cover at the end lets the potato surface brown through dry heat, which gives colour and flavour.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper, potato, butter, milk, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, potato, butter, milk, egg. 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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