Skip to main content
Main

Spiced Beef Relish

A rolled spiced beef mixture baked and sliced.

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

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spiced Beef Relish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Chop the beefsteak very fine.

  2. Mix in salt, pepper, sage, melted butter, crushed crackers, and beaten eggs.

  3. Shape the mixture into a roll.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C), basting with butter and water.

  2. Allow to cool, then cut into slices.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Sage + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Provides the main meaty body and substance of the relish.
Large eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it hold its shape as it sets.
Rolled crackers
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture stays tender and cohesive.
Melted butter
Adds fat for moistness and flavour, and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Baking and basting. Baking the rolled mixture at a steady heat sets the eggs and cracker binder into a firm loaf. Basting with butter and water keeps the surface from drying out, so the slices stay moist.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, egg. 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

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes