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Vegetable Mould

A steamed loaf of mashed potatoes, turnips, carrots, celery, onion, and peas mixed with eggs and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Vegetable Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, turnips, carrots, celery, onion, and green peas.

  2. Beat the eggs and mix them into the vegetable mixture along with the mixed herbs, pepper, and salt.

  3. Butter a mould and fill it with the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mould with a lid or tie a cloth over it.

  2. Steam the mould for 2 hours.

  3. Turn out the vegetable mould and serve with brown sauce.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the vegetables together and help the loaf hold its shape when steamed.
Mashed potatoes
Add body and softness, giving the loaf a smooth, cohesive texture.
Turnips
Contribute bulk and a mild, slightly peppery flavour to the mixture.
Carrots
Add sweetness and colour to the loaf.

The step that matters

Covering the mould for steaming. The lid or cloth must seal the mould so steam stays inside and cooks the loaf evenly. If steam escapes, the mixture can dry out and cook unevenly, and water can get in and make it soggy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, turnip, carrot, celery, onion, egg, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, turnip, carrot, celery, onion, egg, pepper. 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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