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Beef Galantine

A rolled beef mixture seasoned with onion, egg, and spices, simmered in stock and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Galantine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove any skin from the meat.

  2. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  3. Pass the meat through a mincing machine 2 or 3 times with the ham or bacon.

Shape and cook

  1. Add the minced onion, seasoning, and egg.

  2. Shape the mixture into a thick roll.

  3. Tie the roll in a well-greased cloth.

  4. Plunge the roll into boiling stock.

  5. Reduce the heat and cook gently for about 2 hours.

  6. Remove the cloth.

Press and finish

  1. Tie the roll in a dry cloth.

  2. Cover the roll with a plate and a slight weight to press the meat.

  3. Once cold, brush the roll with glaze.

  4. Garnish the roll with lettuce or cress and tomatoes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the roll.
Egg
Binds the minced meat so the roll holds its shape when sliced.
Ham or bacon
Adds fat and extra flavour, keeping the mixture moist.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury flavour to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Gentle cooking in the stock. Boiling the roll hard can toughen the meat proteins and make it dry and crumbly. Keeping the stock at a gentle simmer cooks the meat evenly and keeps it tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, 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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