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Mince-meat with Tomatoes

A baked casserole of minced meat and tomatoes topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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-meat with Tomatoes

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. Chop the cold meat and ripe tomatoes finely in equal quantities.

  2. Season with black pepper and salt.

Assemble

  1. Spread a layer of bread or cracker crumbs in a pudding dish.

  2. Add the minced meat and tomatoes on top.

  3. Spread a thick layer of bread crumbs over the mixture.

  4. Dot the mixture with butter.

  5. Pour 1 cup of water or stock over the top.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour until golden 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast or boiled meat
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it substance and savoury flavour.
Ripe tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity that brightens the rich meat.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and juices, helping the dish hold together and set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the flavour and helps the top crumbs brown.
Water or stock
Provides moisture that steams the mixture and keeps the crumbs from drying out.

The step that matters

Dot the mixture with butter. Butter spread over the top carries fat that promotes browning, so the surface turns golden instead of pale. Distributing it evenly gives even colour and richness.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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