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Beef and Potato Sandwiches

A sandwich made with cold corned beef, mashed potatoes, beaten egg, bread crumbs, fried in drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Beef and Potato Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sandwiches

  1. Fry the slices of cold corned beef very lightly.

  2. Spread a heavy layer of mashed potatoes on each side of the beef. Press the potatoes down on the meat with a knife.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the whole sandwich in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in drippings until very light brown 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. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  4. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Corned beef
Provides the savory, salty meat filling that forms the core of the sandwich.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a soft, moist layer that cushions and flavors the meat inside the sandwich.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the outside so they stick during frying.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden-brown coating when fried.
Drippings
Fat for frying that adds flavor and promotes even browning of the coating.

The step that matters

Fry in drippings until very light brown. Frying over moderate heat lets the egg-and-crumb coating set and brown before the potato layer overheats. Browning too fast can scorch the crumbs while the inside stays cool.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, bread. 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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