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Moulded Beef

A molded beef made with ground beef, paprika, salt, mustard, onion juice, breadcrumbs, egg, pork fat, mushrooms, and stock, cooked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Moulded Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Pass the beef through a meat chopper twice, removing all bits of fiber and gristle.

  2. Season the beef with paprika, salt, mustard, and onion juice.

  3. Mix in the breadcrumbs, beaten egg, minced pork, and quartered mushrooms.

Mould and cook

  1. For decoration, arrange halved olives or champignons in the mold before pressing in the beef mixture.

  2. Wet the mixture with stock and press it into a buttered mold or bowl, covering tightly with a cloth.

  3. Place the mold in boiling water, ensuring the water does not float the mold, and cook for nearly three hours.

Cool and serve

  1. After cooking, place a plate on top of the meat, apply a heavy weight, and let it cool completely.

  2. Turn out the molded beef and cut into horizontal slices.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean raw beef
Forms the body of the loaf, providing the main meaty structure and flavour.
Beaten raw egg
Binds the mixture so it holds together when sliced after cooking.
Fine dry breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and soften the texture, helping the loaf stay moist and tender.
Minced fat pork
Adds fat, which keeps the cooked meat moist and adds richness.
Champignons (french mushrooms)
Add earthy flavour and visible pieces that show in each slice.

The step that matters

Keeping the mold out of direct contact with the boiling water's float. If the mold floats, the mixture cooks unevenly and can loosen or leak. Holding the mold steady in gently simmering water helps the loaf set evenly and firmly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, egg, pork, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, egg, pork, mushroom. 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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