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Egg and Minced Meat

A patty of minced meat and eggs, served with poached eggs and buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Egg and Minced Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the cold chicken, ham, or veal and rub it to a smooth paste.

  2. Add melted butter, chopped parsley, beaten eggs, salt, and pepper; if too dry, moisten with cream, stock, or gravy, but keep it firm enough to shape.

  3. Heat in a frying pan just enough to dry off.

Shape and serve

  1. Form the mixture on a hot platter into a flat mound, hollowing the center and leaving a ridge around the edge.

  2. Keep hot and place 2-3 poached eggs in the center.

  3. Garnish with triangles of buttered toast around the edge and add green parsley leaves.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken, ham, or veal
Forms the bulk of the patty and gives it its meaty body.
Beaten eggs
Bind the minced meat and set when heated, holding the mound together.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture so the mixture stays tender.
Cream, stock, or gravy
Moistens the mixture when it is too dry, while keeping it firm enough to shape.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture firm enough to shape. Too much cream, stock, or gravy makes the mixture loose, so it will not hold a hollowed mound or ridge. Add liquid only as needed, since beaten eggs set when heated and help bind the meat.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, egg, pepper, 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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