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Pressed Meat for Luncheon or Picnic

A pressed meat made from ham and tongue, set with gelatin and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Pressed Meat for Luncheon or Picnic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the ham and tongue together.

  2. Remove all fat and chop the meat very finely.

Set in a press

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the meat broth.

  2. Add the broth to the chopped meat and mix thoroughly.

  3. Place the mixture in a press to set.

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. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + meattop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together173 recipes

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

  3. Ham + coffeetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together77 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Provides the main meat flavour and body of the pressed meat.
Tongue
Adds rich, tender meat and extra gelatinous body to the mixture.
Gelatine
Sets the chopped meat into a firm, sliceable mass as it cools.
Meat broth
Carries the dissolved gelatine and moistens the chopped meat throughout.

The step that matters

Mix the broth into the chopped meat thoroughly. Gelatine only sets where it is evenly distributed, so uneven mixing leaves soft pockets and weak spots in the pressed block.

“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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