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Casserole of Meat

A casserole of meat and rice baked with egg, cracker crumbs, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and stock or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Casserole of Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Boil the rice in hot water for 10 minutes.

  2. Butter a bowl thickly.

  3. Line the buttered bowl with the boiled rice.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat, egg, cracker crumbs, onion, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

  2. Moisten the mixture with stock or milk.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the rice-lined bowl.

  2. Steam the casserole for 45 minutes.

  3. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Rice + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,481 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

Rice
Forms the outer shell that holds the casserole together and gives it a starchy body.
Egg
Binds the meat and crumbs so the filling sets firm when steamed.
Cold meat
Provides the main savory filling and bulk of the dish.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold its shape.
Stock or milk
Adds moisture so the filling stays tender during steaming.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with stock or milk. The meat and crumbs need enough liquid to stay tender while steaming. Too little leaves the filling dry and crumbly, while too much makes it loose and unable to set once the egg coagulates.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, meat, egg, sauce, pepper, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, meat, egg, sauce, pepper, milk. 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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