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Cold Galantine of Beef

Cold beef galantine made by simmering a boneless beef roast with aromatics, then molding and chilling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cold Galantine of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the beef and tie it tightly.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the butter and add the onion, carrot, and any veal or liver trimmings (or calf's foot).

Cook

  1. Add the broth or stock, then place the beef in the saucepan.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, cloves, bay leaves, parsley, and chopped shallot.

  3. Bring to a boil for a few minutes, then skim and reduce heat to simmer gently for four hours or more.

Set and chill

  1. Transfer the beef to a large mold and strain the gravy through muslin into the mold.

  2. Let it cool, then remove any fat that has set on top.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Silver side of the round
Forms the main body of the galantine and becomes tender and sliceable after long simmering.
Broth or stock
Provides the cooking liquid that gently moistens the meat and becomes the savory gravy that sets.
Veal or liver trimmings
Adds gelatin and savory depth to the gravy, helping it set when chilled.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for flavor while softening the aromatic vegetables.

The step that matters

Simmer gently rather than boil. A hard boil toughens the meat's proteins and makes the fibers tight and dry, while a slow simmer lets collagen break down into gelatin that keeps the meat moist and helps the gravy set.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, butter, veal, pepper, clove, parsley, shallot):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, butter, veal, pepper, clove, parsley, shallot. 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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