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To Warm Up Cold Meat

A pastry turnover filled with sliced beef or mutton and ham, seasoned with pepper, salt, mustard or catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Warm Up Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes.

  2. Lightly beat the eggs and mix them with the potatoes until well combined.

  3. Gradually add the milk and enough flour to form a stiff dough that can be rolled out.

Fill and shape

  1. Cut the dough into squares and place a slice of beef or mutton in the center of each square.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, and add a small amount of mustard or catsup.

  3. Top with a slice of ham of the same size and shape as the meat.

  4. Fold the dough into a triangular turnover and seal the edges with a jagging iron.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in butter or beef drippings until golden brown, being careful not to scorch them.

  2. Drain on white paper for a few moments to absorb excess grease and serve hot.

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. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  2. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that makes the dough tender and easy to roll out.
Eggs
Bind the mashed potato into a cohesive mixture and add richness.
Milk
Adds moisture so the dough can be worked into a smooth, pliable sheet.
Flour
Gives the dough enough structure to hold a stiff shape while frying.
Beef or mutton
Supplies the savory meat filling that is the main flavor of the turnover.

The step that matters

Fry in butter or beef drippings until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the dough through Maillard reactions and cooks the filling while the fat seals the surface. Too much heat scorches the outside before the center is hot, so keep the heat controlled and watch the color.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, milk, flour, beef, ham, pepper):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, milk, flour, beef, ham, pepper. 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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