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Mince Roll

A savory meat roll made with minced meat, ham or sausages, breadcrumbs, and herbs, simmered in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mince Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Mix the minced meat, breadcrumbs, seasoning, and flour with enough stock or water to moisten.

  2. Shape the mixture into a roll, brush with beaten egg, and coat with breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the roll quickly in hot fat until well browned.

Stew and finish

  1. In a pot, heat 1 pint of stock, add the roll, and season.

  2. Stew gently for 1½ hours.

  3. Thicken the gravy with 1 tablespoon of flour, bring to a boil, and pour over the roll.

  4. If using water, add a little carrot, turnip, and onion for flavor.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Minced meat
Forms the body of the roll and provides the savory, meaty flavor.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture so the roll holds its shape.
Egg
Beaten egg coating helps the breadcrumbs adhere and encourages browning on the outside.
Flour
Helps bind the mixture and thickens the gravy when added to the stock.

The step that matters

Frying the roll until well browned. Browning through the Maillard reaction builds deep savory flavor and a crisp coating. Frying in hot fat before stewing sets the outside so the roll holds its shape in the liquid.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

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