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Breakfast Meat

A baked casserole of minced meat, macaroni, tomatoes, and breadcrumbs seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Breakfast Meat

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

  1. Mince the cold meat or any remains of cold hash.

  2. If using cold macaroni, slice it; if not, boil macaroni according to package directions.

  3. Slice the tomatoes.

  4. Butter a baking dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the minced meat, macaroni, and tomatoes in the dish, seasoning each layer with pepper and salt.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  3. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Meat + tomatotop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,438 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the savoury base of the dish and provides most of its substance.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and body, holding the layers together as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and a gentle acidity that brightens the rich meat.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping as the casserole bakes.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury flavour so the layers do not dry out in the oven.

The step that matters

Baking the layered casserole. Baking at 400°F for 30 minutes must heat the centre through while the crumb topping browns. Too little time leaves the middle cool, and too long dries the meat and macaroni.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Mustardfits less well

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