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Cold Meat Loaf

A loaf of seasoned cold meat set in gelatinous broth and chilled until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold Meat Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the cold meat and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Place the seasoned meat in a mold.

Make the broth

  1. Boil the bones and bits of meat with the finely chopped onions.

  2. Strain the mixture after boiling.

  3. Dissolve the gelatine and add it to the strained broth.

Set and chill

  1. Pour the broth over the meat in the mold and refrigerate until cool and hardened.

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 + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the body of the loaf and gives it its main flavour.
Gelatine
Sets the strained broth so it holds the meat together when chilled.
Onions
Add aroma and savoury flavour to the broth as it boils.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine into the broth. Gelatine must be fully dissolved in warm broth before it is added, otherwise it can form lumps and fail to set evenly. Once chilled, gelatine forms a gel network that holds the loaf firm enough to slice.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, 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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