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Spanish Chopped Meat

A baked casserole of chopped meat, breadcrumbs, bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, butter, and water, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Spanish Chopped Meat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Grind the cold meat, bread crumbs, bell pepper, onion, and tomatoes separately.

Assemble

  1. In a round baking dish, layer the ingredients: meat, breadcrumbs, pepper, onion, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

  2. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used.

  3. Dot the top with small pieces of butter and pour the cold water over it.

Bake

  1. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring with a fork from the sides to the center to ensure even moisture.

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

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Chopped meat
Forms the main body of the casserole and carries most of the savory flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the layers so the dish holds together.
Cold water
Creates steam and moisture so the mixture does not dry out while baking.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it cooks.
Bell pepper
Adds fresh, slightly sweet vegetable flavor and texture.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that blend into the layers as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavor and promotes browning on the top.

The step that matters

Stirring from the sides to the center while baking. Stirring with a fork redistributes moisture from the edges, where liquid heats fastest, toward the center, helping the casserole cook evenly and keep from drying at the edges or staying wet in the middle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, pepper, tomato, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, pepper, tomato, 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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