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To Mince Beef

A minced beef dish simmered with onion, water, pepper, salt, vinegar, and gravy, served hot with 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 the beef

  1. Shred the underdone beef and some fat finely.

Make the onion base

  1. Combine onion, water, pepper, and salt in a small saucepan.

  2. Boil until the onion is soft.

Combine and serve

  1. Add some gravy from the meat and the minced beef.

  2. Heat for a few minutes without boiling.

  3. Mix in vinegar before serving.

  4. Serve in a small hot dish with sippets of 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Underdone beef
Forms the main body of the dish and carries its meaty flavour.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture to the minced meat.
Onion or shallot
Softened by boiling, it adds sweetness and savoury depth.
Vinegar
Added at the end, it contributes sharpness that balances the rich meat.

The step that matters

Heat without boiling. Boiling the minced meat after adding it can toughen the protein and make it dry and grainy. Gentle heating keeps it tender and moist.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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