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Cold Meat Patties

Cold meat patties are savory patties made from cold meat, onion, breadcrumbs soaked in gravy, wrapped in pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold Meat Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Soak the breadcrumbs in the gravy for a few minutes.

  2. Finely chop the cold meat and onion.

  3. Mix the soaked breadcrumbs, meat, onion, and seasoning together.

Assemble the patties

  1. Line patty tins with flaky pastry and wet the edges.

  2. Place a spoonful of the meat mixture in each tin.

  3. Cover with rounds of pastry and press the edges together.

Bake

  1. Cut a hole in the top of each patty and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. 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

Cold meat
Forms the main body of the filling and gives the patties their savoury flavour.
Breadcrumbs
Soak up the gravy to bind the filling and keep it moist.
Gravy
Moistens the breadcrumbs and adds savoury flavour to the filling.
Flaky pastry
Forms a crisp, layered case that browns in the oven around the filling.

The step that matters

Pressing the pastry edges together. A sealed rim keeps the moist filling inside while baking, so the pastry steams and sets rather than leaking juices into the tin. Wetting the edges first helps the seal hold.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, 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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