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Beef Cheese

A loaf of ground beef, veal, ham, and bacon mixed with seasonings, baked and cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the meat

  1. Put the steak, ham, veal, and 4 ounces of bacon through a meat grinder.

  2. Mix in salt, pepper, shallot, parsley, and mixed herbs, then add brown stock and light wine and mix thoroughly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a dish or oval jar with bacon slices, leaving some for the top.

  2. Press the meat mixture firmly into the dish, cover with bacon, then with a flour-and-water paste.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours.

Cool and serve

  1. Let it cool in a cold place for 24 hours before removing the paste.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 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

Steak
Forms the main body of the loaf and gives it its meaty structure.
Veal
Adds tender, mild meat that softens the texture of the loaf.
Ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour to the meat mixture.
Bacon
Adds fat that keeps the loaf moist as it bakes and lines the dish.
Brown stock
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Slow baking and full cooling. Baking at a low, steady heat for hours cooks the dense meat through without drying it out. Letting the loaf cool fully in the cold lets the meat and fat set firmly so it slices cleanly.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper, parsley, wine. 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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