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 ↓
Cold Meat
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.
Prepare the potato casing
Pass the potatoes through a sieve.
Add melted butter, salt, and the yolk of the egg to the potatoes and mix well.
Butter the inside of a deep cake tin, add breadcrumbs, and cover the sides with the potato mixture, pressing it in.
Brush the inside and edge of the potato lining with a little egg.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
Turn out the potato casing carefully onto a dish with the opening facing up.
Make the gravy and serve
In a pan, melt the remaining butter, add flour, and brown it well.
Add stock and seasonings, then bring to a boil.
Add the meat and heat through, then pour into the potato casing.
Garnish with parsley and serve with gravy.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Potatoes (in the method)
- Form the structure of the casing and set firm when baked, holding the filling.
- Egg
- Binds the potato mixture and, brushed on top, gives the casing a glossy golden browning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the potato casing and carries the roux for the gravy.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock into gravy when browned in butter.
- Stock
- Provides liquid that, thickened with the roux, forms the gravy.
- Meat of choice
- Forms the filling that is heated through and set inside the potato casing.
The step that matters
Browning the flour in butter. Flour cooked in butter must be stirred until lightly browned before stock is added; undercooked roux tastes raw and thickens poorly, while overcooked roux loses thickening power and turns bitter.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, pepper, butter, meat):
- Parsleythe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Turmericfits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, pepper, butter, meat. 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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