Name: Mince of Cold Meat
Ingredients: Scraps of cold meat; 1 tablespoon mushroom catsup; Pepper to taste; Salt to taste; ½ pound rice or 1 pound potatoes

Why it works: Mushroom and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,515 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mince of Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mince the cold meat on a cutting board using a sharp knife.

Cook and serve

In a saucepan, combine the minced meat with mushroom catsup and season with pepper and salt.
Heat the saucepan over medium heat until the meat is warmed through, stirring occasionally.
Serve the mince on a hot dish, surrounded by boiled rice or mashed potatoes.

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.

Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,515 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,423 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat: Forms the body of the dish; gentle reheating warms it without drying it out.
Mushroom catsup: Adds savory, salty depth that gives the minced meat its main flavour.
Rice or potatoes: Starchy base that stretches the meat and soaks up its juices.

The step that matters

Warming the mince over medium heat. Meat that is heated too fast or left too long toughens and dries as its proteins tighten. Stirring occasionally and heating only until warmed through keeps the mince tender and moist.

“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.

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Mushroom Soup60 recipes

Meat Croquettes52 recipes

Steamed Rice48 recipes

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Mince of Cold Meat