Skip to main content
Main

Beef Pounded or Invalids' Quenelle

A quenelle made from pounded beef, chicken, egg, bread crumbs, milk, and seasoning, served hot or on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Beef Pounded or Invalids' Quenelle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Slightly grill or roast the beef until half cooked.

  2. Remove the outside pieces and fat, then chop finely.

  3. Pound the meat and pass it through a wire sieve.

Mix and spread

  1. Mix with bread crumbs, milk, and seasoning.

  2. Heat and serve.

  3. Spread the mixture on thin toast.

Steam and serve

  1. Mix with a beaten egg, bread crumbs, and milk.

  2. Steam the mixture in a cup for 10-15 minutes, then serve.

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. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef (in the method)
Forms the main body of the quenelle and sets firm as its proteins cook.
Egg
Binds the mixture and sets on heating, holding the shape together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, keeping the texture soft rather than dense.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender as it cooks.

The step that matters

Steam the mixture in a cup for 10-15 minutes. Egg proteins set as they heat, so gentle steaming keeps the quenelle tender. Overcooking makes it firm and dry, while undercooking leaves it loose and wet in the middle.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes