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Breslau of Meat

A baked meat casserole made with beef, veal stock, butter, bread crumbs, cream, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, mushroom catsup, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the yolks.

  3. Chop the parsley finely.

  4. Mix all ingredients well in a bowl.

  5. Brush custard cups with melted butter.

  6. Press the mixture into the cups.

Bake and serve

  1. Partly fill a baking pan with boiling water.

  2. Place the cups in the pan.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes.

  4. Turn the cups onto a heated dish.

  5. Pour tomato sauce around the meat.

  6. Garnish with triangles or hearts of toasted bread.

  7. Serve hot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped beef
Forms the main body of the casserole, giving it its substance and bite.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the mixture and giving it a firm, custard-like structure.
Fresh bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and soften, helping the mixture hold together and stay moist.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture tender as it cooks.
Veal stock
Adds savory depth and moisture to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath. Partly filling the pan with boiling water surrounds the cups with gentle, even heat. This keeps the egg-set custard tender and prevents it from curdling, cracking, or drying out at the edges.

“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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