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Beef Cecils

Beef Cecils are seasoned beef meatballs coated in breadcrumbs and fried, served with hot gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Cecils

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the white part of the beef very finely.

  2. Mix the minced beef with bread crumbs, minced onion, chopped anchovy, parsley, pepper, salt, and pickle.

  3. Heat the mixture in a small saucepan with melted butter until warm.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cool enough to handle, shape the mixture into large oval balls and dust with flour.

  2. Dip the balls in beaten egg and roll in bread crumbs.

Brown and serve

  1. Brown the balls over a fire and serve with hot gravy poured over them.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

White beef meat
Forms the main body of the balls and gives them their savoury flavour.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and soften the mixture, giving the balls a lighter, less dense texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps the bread crumb coating stick and set.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the mixture moist as it is heated.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Shaping while the mixture is only just cool enough to handle. If the warm mixture is shaped too early it is soft and sticky and will slump or tear; letting it cool slightly firms the binders so the balls hold their oval shape through coating and browning.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, bread, onion, anchovy, pepper, butter):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, bread, onion, anchovy, pepper, butter. 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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