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Dessert

Gateau of Corned Beef

A baked cake made from minced corned beef, bread crumbs, shallot, gravy, parsley, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Gateau of Corned Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease a cake tin and cover the inside with brown bread crumbs.

Make the mixture

  1. Fry the minced shallot in the fat until soft.

  2. Mince the corned beef and add it to a bowl with the fried shallot, bread crumbs, gravy, parsley, and beaten eggs.

  3. Mix all ingredients well and pour into the prepared cake tin.

Bake

  1. Bake for 45 minutes.

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

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

  3. Bread + shallottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 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

Corned beef
Provides the main meat flavour and body of the cake.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the cake as it sets in the oven.
Egg white
Adds structure as it sets, helping the cake hold together.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the mixture.

The step that matters

Mix all ingredients well and pour into the prepared cake tin.. Thorough mixing spreads the binding egg and crumbs evenly, so the cake sets uniformly and holds together when sliced rather than crumbling in pockets.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, shallot, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, shallot, egg. 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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