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Breslau of Meat

A baked meat custard made with beef or veal, breadcrumbs, cream, and seasonings, cooked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Breslau of Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Beat the yolks and chop the parsley finely.

  2. Mix all the ingredients together well.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush custard cups with melted butter and press the mixture into them.

  2. Partly fill a baking pan with boiling water and stand the cups in it.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for thirty minutes.

  4. When done, turn them out carefully.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped beef or veal
Provides the main body and firm structure of the custard.
Fresh bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard tender as it sets.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and helps the cups release cleanly and brown lightly.

The step that matters

Standing the cups in boiling water. The surrounding water moderates the oven's heat so the custard sets gently. Direct high heat would make the proteins tighten too fast, producing a dry, rubbery or curdled texture.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, bread, cream, sauce, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, bread, cream, sauce, mushroom, 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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