Skip to main content
Main

To Mince Beef

Shredded underdone beef cooked with onion, water, pepper, salt, gravy, and vinegar, served over bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Mince Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred the underdone beef and some fat finely.

Make the mince

  1. In a small saucepan, combine the beef, onion or shallot, water, pepper, and salt.

  2. Cook until the onion is soft, but do not let it boil.

  3. Add some gravy from the meat and the minced beef, mixing well.

  4. Mix in the vinegar before serving.

Serve

  1. In a small hot dish, place slices of bread and pour the mince over it.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Underdone beef
Provides the main meat flavour and the body of the mince.
Fat from beef
Adds richness and moisture so the shredded meat stays tender.
Onion or shallot
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the liquid.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich beef at the end.
Sippets of bread
Soaks up the meat juices and gives a soft base for the mince.

The step that matters

Cook until the onion is soft, but do not let it boil. Gentle heat softens the onion and keeps the meat tender and moist. Boiling toughens the proteins and can make the mince dry and chewy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, vinegar, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, vinegar, bread. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes