Name: Minced Meat
Ingredients: 1 pound cold meat (beef, mutton, veal, or pork); Salt and pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon flour; ½ pint stock or water; 1 teaspoon Tarragon vinegar; 1 teaspoon good sauce or mushroom ketchup; A few slices of finely chopped onion

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

1 pound cold meat (beef, mutton, veal, or pork)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon flour
½ pint stock or water
1 teaspoon Tarragon vinegar
1 teaspoon good sauce or mushroom ketchup
A few slices of finely chopped onion

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

Trim off excess fat from the cold meat.
Cut the meat into slices, then into small discs.
Season the meat with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with flour.

Make the sauce

In a small bowl, mix stock or water, Tarragon vinegar, sauce or mushroom ketchup, and chopped onion.
Combine the mixture with the minced meat.

Bake and serve

Place everything in a well-greased paper bag and seal it securely.
Cook in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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.

Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tarragon + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,568 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Flour + tarragontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together788 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat (beef, mutton, veal, or pork): Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the dish.
Flour: Coats the meat and thickens the stock into a light gravy as it cooks.
Stock or water: Supplies moisture so the meat stays tender in the sealed bag.
Tarragon vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the meat's flavour.
Sauce or mushroom ketchup: Adds savoury depth and umami to the mixture.

Swap the onion

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

Shallotfits better
Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

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