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To Mince Beef

A dish of finely shredded underdone beef cooked with onion, water, pepper, salt, vinegar, and served with bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Mince Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely shred the underdone beef and some fat.

  2. Place the shredded beef and fat in a small saucepan with chopped onion or shallot, water, pepper, and salt.

Cook

  1. Boil until the onion is soft, then add some meat gravy and the minced beef. Do not let it boil again.

  2. Mix in vinegar before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve in a small hot dish with slices of bread.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Underdone beef
Provides the main body of the dish and its meaty flavour.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture to the minced beef.
Onion or shallot
Softens during boiling and adds mild sweetness and aroma.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich meat.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil again. Once the minced beef and gravy are added, boiling again can toughen the meat and make the texture dry and grainy. Keeping it just hot preserves tenderness and moisture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Mustardfits about as well

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