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Vegetarian Roast

A baked or steamed loaf made from bread crumbs, peanuts, walnuts, corn pulp, cheese, eggs, onion, parsley, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Peanut and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 346 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vegetarian Roast

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) or prepare a steamer.

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, peanuts, walnuts, corn pulp, cheese, eggs, onion, parsley, whole wheat flour, and salt until well combined.

  3. Press the mixture into a small bread pan or baking dish.

Cook

  1. Bake for 1 hour or steam for 1 hour, steaming is preferred.

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. Peanut + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together346 recipes

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

  2. Peanut + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Walnut + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

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

  4. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape when sliced.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and absorb moisture to give the roast body.
Whole wheat flour
Adds more body and helps the mixture hold together.
Peanuts
Add protein-rich bulk and a nutty texture.
Cheese
Adds richness and fat, helping the roast taste savoury and hold together.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, peanut, walnut, corn, cheese, egg, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, peanut, walnut, corn, cheese, egg, parsley. 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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