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Spinach Border Mould

Spinach border mould is a baked spinach dish set in a mould, topped with egg shapes and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Spinach Border Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mould

  1. Butter a border mould.

  2. Dust it with bread crumbs.

  3. Press the prepared spinach mixture into the mould.

Bake the border

  1. Place the mould in a pan of hot water in the oven.

  2. Cover it to prevent browning.

  3. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Make the egg shapes

  1. In a bowl, break the eggs.

  2. Add salt and cream.

  3. Beat slightly.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into a buttered tin cup.

  5. Place the tin cup in a saucepan with boiling water on the stove.

  6. Cover.

  7. Cook until stiff, about 3 to 4 minutes.

  8. Remove from heat.

  9. Turn out of the mould.

  10. Cut into half-inch slices or desired shapes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Make a cream sauce.

  2. Turn the spinach mould out onto a platter.

  3. Add some sauce in the center.

  4. Top with egg shapes.

  5. Finish with the remaining sauce and egg shapes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Spinach + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Spinach + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Forms the main body of the mould and gives the dish its flavour and colour.
Eggs
Coagulate on gentle heat, binding the egg mixture so it holds its shape when cut.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the egg mixture and the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook until stiff. Egg proteins set as they heat. Cooking past the point of firmness tightens them further, making the egg shapes rubbery and causing them to weep liquid. Removing them from heat once they are just stiff keeps them tender and neat when sliced.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, egg, cream):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, egg, cream. 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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