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Minced Mutton or Beef Browned

A dish of finely chopped mutton or beef browned with bread, vinegar, gravy, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Minced Mutton or Beef Browned

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the meat finely and season with salt, pepper, and parsley.

  2. Mix in the grated bread, vinegar, and gravy until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a dish and dot with small pieces of butter.

  2. Sprinkle additional grated bread and butter on top.

  3. Brown under a broiler or in a hot oven until golden.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean mutton or beef
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its savory meaty flavor.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and adds body, helping the meat hold together and stay moist.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth so the meat does not dry out while cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown to a golden color.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich meat and gravy.

The step that matters

Brown under a broiler or in a hot oven until golden. Browning depends on high surface heat driving the Maillard reaction in the bread, butter, and meat. Too little heat leaves the top pale and dull, while overcooking can dry the dish out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, bread, vinegar, butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, vinegar, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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