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Minced Beef

A minced beef stew with broth, parsley, onion, vinegar, served on toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Minced Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the lean parts of the cold meat very fine.

  2. Add a little of the fat, also minced, to a saucepan.

  3. Pour in enough rich broth or gravy to cover the meat.

Cook

  1. Add minced parsley, chopped onion, and a little vinegar.

  2. Place the saucepan over low heat for 15 minutes without boiling.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve in a soup dish on toasted bread.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the dish.
Broth or gravy
Supplies moisture so the minced meat stays tender and does not dry out while heating.
Fat from the meat
Adds richness and mouthfeel to the minced meat.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma as it softens in the liquid.
Vinegar
Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich meat.

The step that matters

Keep the saucepan over low heat without boiling. Boiling toughens the proteins in meat, making it firm and dry. Gentle heat keeps the minced meat tender and juicy while the flavors blend.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, parsley, vinegar, pepper, bread. 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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