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Recooking Beef

A dish of leftover roast beef reheated with gravy and mixed with potatoes, bread crumbs, or rice, then fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 851 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Recooking Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

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.

Heat the beef in gravy

  1. Heat the gravy in a pan.

  2. Trim the roast beef into shape.

  3. Cover the trimmed roast beef with gravy.

  4. Place the beef in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes or until heated through.

  5. Slice the beef.

  6. Heat the sliced beef in the gravy.

Make the cakes

  1. Mix chopped beef with potatoes, bread crumbs, or rice.

  2. Add salt and pepper.

  3. Add enough water or soup to moisten.

  4. Heat butter or beef fat in a skillet until hot.

  5. Add the mixture to the skillet.

  6. Cover the skillet.

  7. Steam until heated through.

  8. Form the mixture into cakes or balls.

  9. Fry the cakes or balls in the skillet until browned.

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. Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Provides the main meat and flavor, and is reheated gently so it stays moist.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor while the beef reheats.
Potatoes
Bind the chopped meat and add body and moisture to the cakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together when formed.
Butter or beef fat
Conducts heat in the skillet and gives the cakes a browned, rich crust.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes or balls until browned. Frying in hot fat creates browning through the Maillard reaction, which adds flavor and a crisp surface. Cakes added to a cool pan absorb fat and fall apart or steam instead.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, rice, pepper, butter. 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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