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A Nice Breakfast Dish

A savory breakfast casserole of cold beef or lamb with mashed potatoes, cream, butter, egg, and seasonings, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

A Nice Breakfast Dish

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 the filling

  1. Mince the cold beef or lamb.

  2. If using beef, add a pinch of powdered cloves; if using lamb, add a pinch of summer savory, along with pepper and salt.

  3. Place the meat mixture in a baking dish.

Top and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the mashed potatoes with cream, butter, and a little salt.

  2. Spread the potato mixture over the meat.

  3. Beat the egg with cream or milk and spread it over the potatoes.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until warmed through and the potatoes are browned.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  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

Cold beef or lamb
Forms the savory base of the casserole and is the main protein.
Mashed potatoes
Forms the topping that bakes into a soft layer and browns on top.
Egg
Sets when baked, binding the top layer and helping it brown.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to flavor and browning of the potato topping.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the potato topping and egg glaze.

The step that matters

Spreading the egg glaze over the potatoes. The beaten egg with cream or milk sets and browns in the oven, so it needs to cover the potatoes evenly to give an even golden top rather than patchy color.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, potato, cream, butter, egg. 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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