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To Make a Pasty of Beef Oe Mutton to Eat Like Yen Ison

A pasty made from beef or mutton marinated with sugar, port wine, vinegar, and spices, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Make a Pasty of Beef Oe Mutton to Eat Like Yen Ison

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Bone a small rump or piece of sirloin of beef, or a fat loin of mutton, after hanging several days.

  2. Beat the meat well with a rolling pin.

Marinate

  1. Rub the meat with sugar and pour over port wine and vinegar.

  2. Let it marinate for five days and nights.

Season and bake

  1. Wash and dry the meat, then season it with pepper, Jamaica pepper, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Place the meat in a dish and spread butter over it.

  3. Cover with a crust around the edges and a thick top crust.

  4. Bake in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) for two 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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Beef + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or mutton
Forms the main body of the pasty, providing the meat that is tenderised and baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during baking.
Port wine
Adds acidity and flavour to the marinade, helping to tenderise the meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the marinade, which helps soften the meat's texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, moistening the meat as it bakes.

The step that matters

Marinating for five days and nights. Long acidic marinating softens tough muscle fibres slowly, so the meat stays moist and tender. Too short a time leaves it firm, while the acid must be kept in a covered dish to avoid spoilage.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, port wine, vinegar, pepper, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, port wine, vinegar, pepper, 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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