Skip to main content
Main

Meat Toast

A toasted bread topped with a seasoned minced roast mixture, baked until golden and finished with lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Meat Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the topping

  1. Mix the minced roast with gravy, beaten eggs, parsley, and minced onion.

  2. Stir the mixture over low heat until thick.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the cooled mixture on pieces of toast.

  2. Brush the top with beaten egg.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Finish

  1. Before serving, squeeze a little lemon juice over the toast.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast
Provides the meat base and savory flavor of the topping.
Large eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, holding it together on the toast.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth so the meat stays tender.
Onion
Contributes aroma and sweetness as it softens in the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Help the top brown and crisp during baking.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture over low heat until thick. Eggs thicken and can scramble if overheated, so gentle low heat gives a smooth, spreadable mixture. The mixture also needs to cool before spreading so it does not soften the toast or run.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, bread, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, bread, lemon. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes