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Mince Roll

A boiled roll of minced beef and ham mixed with eggs, stock, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Mince Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the minced beef, minced ham, eggs, stock, bread crumbs, pepper, and salt together until well combined.

  2. Form the mixture into a roll and wrap it in a cloth sprinkled with bread crumbs.

Cook and finish

  1. Place the roll in boiling water and let it boil gently for 2 hours.

  2. After cooking, set the roll upright until it cools, then glaze it.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture so the roll holds its shape after cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, keeping the roll moist and tender.
Minced beef
Provides the main structure and savoury meaty flavour of the roll.
Minced ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour and fat that keeps the roll juicy.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the mixture as it cooks.

The step that matters

Gentle boiling of the roll. Boiling gently rather than vigorously keeps the meat tender and stops the wrapped roll from breaking apart or becoming tough and dry.

“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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