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To Mince Beef

A minced beef dish cooked with onion, water, pepper, salt, gravy, and optional shallot vinegar, served over bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Mince Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the undercooked beef and some fat finely.

Make the mince

  1. In a small saucepan, combine the onion, water, pepper, and salt; boil until the onion is soft.

  2. Add the gravy and minced beef; cook for a few minutes without boiling.

Serve

  1. Prepare a small hot dish with slices of bread and pour the mince into it.

  2. If desired, add shallot vinegar for acidity.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beef
Provides the main body and meaty flavour of the dish.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture to the minced beef.
Gravy
Adds savoury depth and moisture to the mince.

The step that matters

Cooking the mince without boiling. Simmering or boiling the minced beef toughens its proteins and makes it dry and grainy. Keeping it just below a boil keeps the meat tender and juicy.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper, bread, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, bread, vinegar. 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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