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Cold Meat Cookery

A pie of sliced cooked meat topped with mashed potatoes, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold Meat Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the dripping in a small pan.

  2. Brown the chopped onion and flour in the dripping.

  3. Gradually add the stock, season well, and boil for 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the pie

  1. Slice or chop the meat, discarding skin and fat.

  2. Mix the meat with the sauce and pour into a pie dish.

  3. Mash the potatoes and mix in the milk, pepper, and salt.

  4. Heat the potato mixture until hot and smooth, then spread it over the meat.

  5. Mark the top with a fork or knife.

Bake and finish

  1. Brush the top with milk before browning for a glazed finish.

  2. Brown the pie in the oven at 400°F (200°C) or in front of the fire.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the dripping and onion mixture into a sauce that holds the meat together.
Potatoes
Form a soft, smooth topping that bakes into a golden crust.
Dripping
Adds fat and savory flavor while browning the onion and flour.
Milk
Enriches the mashed potato and helps the top brown to a glossy finish.
Cooked meat
Provides the main filling, bound in a thickened sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the potato topping until hot and smooth. Potato that is cold or lumpy spreads unevenly and can stay cool in the centre. Heating it fully also helps the top brown evenly in the oven.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, potato, milk, pepper. 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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