Skip to main content
Main

Marbled Meats

A layered meat terrine made with cold cooked beef, veal or chicken, gelatin, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Marbled Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the cold cooked salt beef tongue, veal or chicken, and roasted or boiled beef finely.

  2. Season the veal and beef with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Pack the meat in layers.

  4. Dust with chopped parsley.

  5. Add thin slices of hard boiled eggs between layers.

  6. Press the layers together with a broad bladed knife.

Make the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Add 1 pint of hot water, beef extract, salt, pepper, and lemon juice to the soaked gelatine.

Set and serve

  1. Baste the mixture over the top of the meat in the mold, piercing the meat if necessary to help it absorb.

  2. Let the meat absorb the gelatine overnight.

  3. To serve, dip the mold in hot water, turn out the meat, and garnish with cress or lettuce.

  4. Serve with sauce tartare, tomato ketchup, or mayonnaise dressing.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt beef tongue
Forms the main meaty body of the terrine, giving the layered slices their flavour and marbled look.
Veal or chicken
Adds a mild, tender meat layer that contrasts with the darker beef.
Roasted or boiled beef
Supplies the bulk of the meat and its savoury beefy flavour.
Gelatine
Sets the hot liquid into a firm jelly that binds the meat layers together when chilled.
Hard boiled eggs
Adds visible pale layers and a mild, rich texture between the meat.

The step that matters

Let the meat absorb the gelatine overnight. Gelatine only sets as it cools, and the liquid must soak fully into the meat to bind the layers. Rushing this leaves loose, weepy slices that fall apart when turned out.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, egg, lemon):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, egg, lemon. 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

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes