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Beef Gateau

A baked beef dish made with dripping, bacon, onion, flour, water, relish, spices, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Gateau

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Fry and make the sauce

  1. Heat the dripping in a frying pan with the bacon and sliced onion.

  2. Add the beefsteak and fry until browned; set aside to cool.

  3. Stir the flour into the fat in the pan, then gradually add the hot water while stirring until smooth and thick.

  4. Add the relish, browning, pepper, and nutmeg; let simmer for 10 minutes.

Mince and mould

  1. Pass the beef through a mincing machine and strain the sauce into the minced meat; mix well and add the beaten egg.

  2. Grease a plain tin mold with clarified dripping and fill it with the cold meat mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with greased paper, place a plate on top, and bake in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Turn the meat out of the mold and pour brown sauce or clear gravy around the dish.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Beefsteak
Forms the bulk and meaty texture of the loaf once minced and baked.
Egg
Binds the minced meat and sets during baking so the loaf holds its shape.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot water and fat.
Dripping
Adds fat for frying, carrying flavour and promoting browning of the meat and onion.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it fries, adding aroma to the sauce and meat.
Tomato or yorkshire relish
Adds acidity and savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the hot water gradually to the flour and fat. Stirring the water in slowly lets the flour starch disperse and swell evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, thick sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, tomato, pepper, nutmeg, 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.

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