Why it works: Meat and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Minced Meat for Invalids
Ingredients
Directions
Finely mince the raw meat or poultry by hand.
Sprinkle a little salt over the minced meat.
Place the meat in a saucepan and heat it with a small amount of butter or a drop of water.
Heat until hot throughout; do not let it boil, as this will make it tough.
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.
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raw meat or poultry
- Protein that firms and sets as it heats, so gentle heat keeps it soft.
- Butter
- Fat that adds moisture and richness to the warmed meat.
The step that matters
Heat until hot throughout, without boiling. Boiling toughens meat because high heat tightens its proteins and squeezes out moisture. Gentle heat keeps the minced meat tender.
“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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