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Fricandeau a LA Soubise

A braised meat loaf served with a rich onion and stock sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,108 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricandeau a LA Soubise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the meat

  1. Pound the meat with a rolling pin until tender.

  2. Shape the meat into a round loaf.

  3. Lard the top side of the meat.

  4. Place the meat on a perforated pie dish that fits into a braising pot.

Make the braise

  1. In a pan, fry the onion and carrot in butter until softened.

  2. Add the softened onion, carrot, bay leaf, thyme, clove, and roux to the pot.

  3. Blend the roux with enough boiling water to make it smooth.

  4. Add the stock and sherry to the pot.

  5. Cover the pot tightly.

  6. Bring the contents to a boil over high heat.

  7. Reduce to a gentle simmer for about 20 minutes per pound.

  8. Uncover the pot and place it in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

Glaze and serve

  1. Baste frequently until a rich glaze forms.

  2. Transfer the pot to a hot dish.

  3. Add a little broth to the pot and stir the contents.

  4. Boil down rapidly for a few minutes.

  5. Strain and skim the gravy.

  6. Serve the gravy in a sauceboat.

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. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during slow braising.
Flour
Thickens the braising liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when softening the onion and carrot.
Onion and carrot
Provide aromatic sweetness and body that flavour the braising liquid.
Stock
Supplies the main liquid that cooks the meat and forms the gravy.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a rounded aroma to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Basting until a rich glaze forms. The meat's surface needs repeated basting so the reducing liquid coats it and browns gradually. Too little basting leaves the glaze pale or dry, while the sugars and proteins in the reduced liquid build colour and flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, butter, thyme, clove, flour, sherry):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, butter, thyme, clove, flour, sherry. 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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