Name: Minced Meat-cups
Ingredients: minced beef or mutton; 1 onion, chopped; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; a little gravy; mashed potatoes; 2 tablespoons cream; butter

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Minced Meat-cups

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 filling

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine minced beef or mutton, chopped onion, pepper, salt, and a little gravy.

Assemble and bake

Spoon the mixture into scallop shells or small cups, filling them three parts full.
Top with mashed potatoes mixed with cream.
Add a bit of butter on top.
Bake in the oven until browned.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Minced beef or mutton: Provides the savory meat base that forms the body of the filling.
Mashed potatoes: Forms a soft topping that insulates the filling and browns in the oven.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potato topping.
Butter: Adds fat that helps the top brown and gives a rich flavor.
Onion: Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it cooks with the meat.

“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.