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Beef Scallop

A baked beef dish layered with sauce, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Scallop

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, fry the chopped onion in beef dripping until brown.

  2. Stir in the flour until smoothly mixed, then add the vegetable stock.

  3. Bring the sauce to a boil, season with salt and pepper, and add the tomato catsup.

  4. Simmer for 10 minutes, then strain the sauce into a basin.

Layer and bake

  1. Butter a pie dish and layer cold beef slices in it.

  2. Pour some sauce over the beef, sprinkle with chopped parsley and strained onion.

  3. Continue layering beef and sauce until the dish is full.

  4. Cover the top with breadcrumbs, drizzle with warm dripping, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for at least 1 hour.

  5. If the breadcrumbs brown too quickly, cover with greased paper.

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

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

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef dripping
Adds richness and flavour when the onion is fried, and moistens the crumb topping.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce that coats the beef.
Vegetable stock
Provides the liquid base of the sauce that keeps the layers moist.
Cold beef
Forms the main filling, which softens and absorbs sauce as it bakes.
Fine dry breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the baked dish.

The step that matters

Simmer and strain the sauce before layering. Flour must be fully mixed in and the sauce simmered long enough to cook out its raw starch taste and thicken; lumps or a thin sauce will leave the layered dish watery or floury.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, pepper, tomato, parsley, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, pepper, tomato, parsley, sauce. 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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