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Moulded Meat

A moulded dish of minced meat, ham or tongue, eggs, cream, and spices, boiled until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper 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 ↓

Moulded Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Season the minced meat with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. Stir in 2 eggs and the cream to form a paste.

  3. Boil 2 eggs for 15 minutes, then remove the shells and slice them.

  4. Arrange the egg slices in a buttered mold.

  5. Fill the mold with the meat mixture, ensuring it is full to prevent water from spoiling it.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover the mold with a cloth and boil for 35 minutes.

  2. Turn the mold onto a hot dish and serve.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Cold boiled meat
Forms the bulk of the moulded body and gives it its main meaty texture.
Eggs
Bind the minced meat into a paste and set firm when boiled, holding the mould together.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the paste so it stays tender rather than dry.
Ham or tongue
Adds extra savoury flavour and meaty character to the mixture.

The step that matters

Filling the mold completely. Leaving air gaps lets water collect around the mixture during boiling, which can make the moulded meat watery and spoil its texture. A full mold keeps the paste compact and set.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, cream, egg, 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.

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