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Mince for Patties or Pancakes

A spiced minced meat mixture for making patties or pancakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mince for Patties or Pancakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the cold meat on a clean surface, removing all sinews.

  2. Slice the onions, green chillies, ginger, and mint leaves.

Cook the base

  1. Warm the ghee in a pan.

  2. Stir in the mixed herbs for a few minutes.

  3. Add the sliced onions.

  4. Cover and cook until they soften but do not brown.

Cook the mince

  1. Mix the ground meat into the onions and combine well.

  2. Cover again and cook the mixture for a few minutes.

  3. Add the ground condiments and salt to taste.

  4. Once the meat is cooked, stir in the strained juice of the two sour limes.

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. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mint + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together846 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Ginger + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,621 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Turmeric + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Ginger + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Provides the main body and protein structure of the patties once cooked.
Onions
Soften into a sweet, moist base that binds the mixture together.
Ghee
Adds fat and richness and carries the flavour of the spices and herbs.
Green chillies
Add sharp heat and fresh aroma to the mixture.
Green ginger
Contributes a warm, pungent aroma that complements the meat and onions.
Sour limes
Add acidity that brightens the rich, fatty meat.

The step that matters

Cook the onions until soft but not browned. Slow, covered cooking softens onions and draws out their natural sweetness and moisture. Browning them would add bitter, toasted notes and change the mild base the dish depends on.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, turmeric, ginger, ghee, mint, lime):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, turmeric, ginger, ghee, mint, lime. 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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