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Minced Meat

A dish of minced cold meat mixed with flour, mushroom ketchup, stock, pepper, and salt, served over rice or mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Minced Meat

Why it works: Mushroom and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,515 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Minced Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the scraps of cold meat on a cutting board using a sharp knife.

Make the mince

  1. Combine the minced meat, flour, stock, and mushroom ketchup in a saucepan. Season the mixture with pepper and salt.

  2. Place the saucepan over medium heat. Warm the mixture through, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Serve

  1. Serve the mince on a hot dish, surrounded by boiled rice or mashed potatoes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,481 recipes

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

  5. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the stock and meat mixture into a binding, spoonable mince.
Stock
Adds moisture and savory flavor while the mixture warms through.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savory, umami depth to the mince.

The step that matters

Warm the mixture through, stirring occasionally. Flour-thickened mixtures scorch and stick to the base of the pan over medium heat. Stirring keeps the starch dispersed and evenly heated, so the mince thickens smoothly without burning.

“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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