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Mince with Bread Crumbs

A baked casserole of finely chopped cold meat, bread crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mince with Bread Crumbs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble the casserole

  1. In a baking dish, layer bread crumbs seasoned with butter, black pepper, and salt.

  2. Add a layer of minced cold meat.

  3. Repeat the layers until the dish is filled.

  4. Ensure there are enough lumps of butter to make the dish rich.

  5. Pour the rich cream over the top.

Bake

  1. Bake until the top is a good brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the savoury filling layers that give the casserole its body.
Bread crumbs
Form the absorbent base layers that soak up butter and cream as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the crumbs brown.
Rich cream
Adds moisture and richness, setting into a tender layer over the top.

The step that matters

Ensure there are enough lumps of butter. Butter is the main source of fat in this dish. Scattered lumps melt during baking, enriching the crumbs and helping the top brown, so too little butter leaves the casserole dry and pale.

“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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