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Meat for Invalids

A preserved paste made from raw loin meat, sweet and bitter almonds, sugar, and optional egg yolk and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Meat for Invalids

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the raw meat, sweet almonds, bitter almonds, and sugar in a marble mortar.

  2. Beat the mixture to a uniform pulp.

  3. Strain the pulp to separate the fibers.

Store

  1. Store the pulp in a dry, cool place for freshness.

  2. Optionally, add the yolk of an egg and milk to enhance nutrition.

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. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

  2. Meat + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together486 recipes

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

  3. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Meat + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw meat
Provides the main body of the paste, giving it bulk and a savoury base.
Sweet almonds
Add fat and a smooth, rich texture to the pulp.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharp, aromatic flavour in small quantity.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the savoury meat and almond flavours.

The step that matters

Beating to a uniform pulp. Grinding and beating must break the meat and almonds into an even, fine pulp. Uneven pieces leave a gritty texture, and straining afterwards removes fibres that were not fully broken down.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Cocoafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sugar, egg, milk. 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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