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Cold Meats

A baked patty made from cold roast mutton, curry powder, butter, egg, milk, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cold Meats

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 the mixture

  1. Cut the cold roast mutton into small pieces.

  2. Add curry powder, coarse sea salt, butter, beaten egg, and milk to the mutton, then mix lightly.

Shape and bake

  1. Butter a pie pan and form the mixture into a smooth oval shape in the center.

  2. Spread ½ tablespoon of butter over the top.

  3. Heat in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Cover with beaten egg seasoned with a pinch of salt and ½ teaspoon curry powder.

  5. Sprinkle with finely sifted bread crumbs.

  6. Return to the oven to brown.

Serve

  1. Serve on a platter garnished with parsley.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast mutton
Provides the main body and meaty flavour of the patty.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture and sets when heated, giving the patty structure.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned crust on the top of the patty.

The step that matters

Return to the oven to brown. Browning relies on dry surface heat, and the Maillard reaction needs time to develop color and flavor without drying the patty out.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, egg, milk, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, egg, milk, 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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