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Tinned Meat, with Oat-meal

A baked dish of tinned meat, oatmeal, water, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Tinned Meat, with Oat-meal

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Bake and finish

  1. In a deep pie dish, combine oatmeal, water, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add the fat from the meat and bake until nearly done.

  3. Stir in the sliced and fried onion and chopped parsley or sage.

  4. Finish cooking, then stir in the tinned meat cut into small pieces and the jelly mixed with browning.

  5. Set the dish in a cool part of the oven or on the hob for about 10 minutes to heat through.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Forms the thick base that sets as it cooks and gives the dish body.
Tinned meat
Provides the main protein and savoury flavour in the finished dish.
Fat from the meat
Adds richness and moisture, helping the oatmeal stay tender while baking.
Jelly from the meat
Adds meaty flavour and moisture, and helps bind the mixture together.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth once sliced and fried.

The step that matters

Adding the tinned meat and jelly after the oatmeal has nearly finished cooking. Tinned meat is already cooked, so adding it late and only heating it through keeps it from drying out or toughening, while the oatmeal sets underneath.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, parsley. 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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