Skip to main content
Main

Toad-in-the-hole

Meat pieces coated in flour, baked with onions in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Toad-in-the-hole

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).

  2. Rub the pieces of meat in the flour, then place them in a cooking vessel.

  3. Add the chopped onions and enough stock to barely cover the meat.

  4. Stir well and level the surface.

Stew and bake

  1. Cover the bottom of the cooking vessel with stock and add the meat and onions.

  2. Allow to stew for 1 hour.

  3. Remove the dish and pour the batter over the meat to cover it.

  4. Return it to the hottest part of the oven and bake until nicely browned.

  5. Once browned, lower the heat and simmer gently until done.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the savoury base of the dish, releasing juices and flavour as it stews and cooks.
All-purpose flour
Coats the meat and thickens the cooking liquid, while also forming the batter that sets and browns.
Milk
Moistens the batter so it cooks into a tender, set crust rather than a dry one.
Egg powder
Adds structure to the batter, helping it set as it bakes.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and mingle with the meat juices.

The step that matters

Return to the hottest part of the oven for browning. The batter must be in a very hot oven to rise and brown well before the meat overcooks. Starting the batter in a cooler oven can make it heavy and pale.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, egg, milk, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMeat CakesMeat Cakes35 recipes