Skip to main content
Main

Minced Meat

A baked minced meat dish cooked in a paper bag with stock, vinegar, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Minced Meat

Why it works: Pepper and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Minced Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Trim off excess fat from the cold meat and cut it into small discs.

  2. Season the meat with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with flour.

  3. In a small bowl, mix the stock or water, Tarragon vinegar, mushroom ketchup, and chopped onion.

  4. Combine the mixture with the minced meat.

Bake

  1. Place everything in a well-greased paper bag and seal it securely.

  2. Place the sealed bag on a grid shelf in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  3. Cook for about 20 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Provides the protein and fat that give the dish its savory, rich body.
Flour
Lightly coats the meat and helps thicken the juices into a sauce.
Stock or water
Supplies moisture so the meat steams and stays tender in the bag.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami flavor to the meat and liquid.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a bright acidity that balances the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Sealing the paper bag. A tightly sealed bag traps steam so the meat cooks in its own moisture and stays tender. If the seal leaks, the juices escape and the meat can dry out and brown unevenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, flour, tarragon, vinegar, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, flour, tarragon, vinegar, 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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipes