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Panada

A thick paste of white sauce, egg yolks and flavourings, used to bind forcemeat or croquettes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Panada

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 ↓

Panada

Ingredients

Directions

Make the panada

  1. Cover the panada with milk or cream and a plate to keep in steam for at least 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the excess liquid.

  3. Squeeze the panada dry in a thin cloth.

  4. Place it in a small saucepan and add just enough white sauce or gravy to absorb.

  5. Stir constantly over low heat until it forms a dry paste that sticks to the spoon.

  6. Mix in the unbeaten yolks of 2 eggs.

  7. Let it cool completely before using.

Make the flavouring

  1. In a separate pan, brown ham, shallots, bay leaf, mushrooms, parsley, cloves, and mace in butter.

  2. Add enough broth or gravy to the browned mixture and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

  3. Strain this mixture over the panada and incorporate it.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk or cream
Softens the bread so it can absorb liquid and blend smoothly.
Rich white sauce or gravy
Adds moisture and body that the panada absorbs to form a paste.
Fresh egg yolks
Enrich the paste and help bind it as it sets.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, browned meaty flavour to the flavouring liquid.
Mushrooms
Add earthy depth to the browned flavouring base.

The step that matters

Stir the panada over low heat until it forms a dry paste. Gentle heat lets the starch in the thickened base swell and firm slowly, so the paste dries evenly without scorching. Too much heat can scorch it or cause the eggs to curdle when mixed in.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sauce, egg, ham, shallot, mushroom, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sauce, egg, ham, shallot, mushroom, parsley. 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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