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Cold Meat Mould

A chilled loaf of cooked meat, suet, breadcrumbs, and spices, steamed and served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Cold Meat Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mould

  1. Grease a plain round mould or basin well and line it with bread raspings.

Mix and steam

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, suet, onion, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add the beaten egg and enough stock or gravy to moisten the mixture.

  3. Turn the mixture into the prepared basin, cover with greased paper, and steam for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Turn out the mould and serve with brown or tomato sauce, garnished with parsley.

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out and sliced.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the loaf a soft, body-filled texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist and rich as it steams.
Stock or gravy
Moistens the mixture so it packs together without drying out.

The step that matters

Moistening the mixture. Too little stock or gravy leaves the loaf dry and crumbly, while too much makes it soggy and loose. Add liquid gradually until the mixture just holds together when pressed.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, egg, bread, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, egg, bread, nutmeg, 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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