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Quenelles, Beef

Beef quenelles are small, poached meatballs made from minced beef, bread crumbs, egg, and stock, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Quenelles, Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Slightly grill the meat, then trim off all the fat and skin.

  2. Mince the meat and pound it in a mortar.

  3. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.

Shape the quenelles

  1. Add the bread crumbs, beaten egg, salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of stock.

  2. Form the mixture into egg shapes using two teaspoons.

Poach and serve

  1. Place the quenelles in a buttered sauté pan and pour hot stock around them.

  2. Poach very slowly for 10 to 15 minutes, covering with greased paper.

  3. Drain on a clean cloth and serve with gravy.

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

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

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the quenelles, giving them their savory flavor and structure.
Egg
Binds the minced meat and bread crumbs so the quenelles hold their shape when poached.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and lighten the texture, keeping the quenelles tender rather than dense.

The step that matters

Poach very slowly. Gentle heat lets the egg and meat proteins set gradually. Boiling or rapid heat would toughen the mixture and can break the quenelles apart.

“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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