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Fricadella Made From Canned Roast Beef

A baked patty made from canned roast beef, bread crumbs, egg, onion, parsley, and spices, served with a simple gravy.

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 ↓

Fricadella Made From Canned Roast Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pass the canned roast beef through a food chopper.

  2. Add salt, pepper, wet bread crumbs, beaten egg, onion, and parsley. Mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into flat cakes.

  4. Sprinkle the cakes with flour.

Bake and make the gravy

  1. Brush a baking pan with drippings.

  2. Place the fricadella in the pan.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 18 minutes.

  4. After removing the fricadella, mix 1 tablespoon flour with a little cold water and 1 tablespoon caramel.

  5. Add enough rice stock or water to make 1 cup of gravy and season to taste.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Canned roast beef
Provides the main meat body that is bound into the cakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the cakes a tender, sliceable body.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while baking.
Flour
Dusted on the cakes to help form a light browned crust, and thickens the gravy.
Caramel
Adds colour and a deeper, slightly sweet flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Baking the fricadella in a hot oven. A hot oven sets the egg and crumb binder and browns the flour-dusted surface quickly. Baking too long dries the meat, so check at the early end of the 15 to 18 minute time.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, egg, pepper, parsley, flour, rice):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, egg, pepper, parsley, flour, rice. 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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