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Baking

Cold Boiled Beef

A casserole of cold minced beef, butter, flour, onion, parsley, stock, catsup, bread, and egg, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Cold Boiled Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Stir in the flour and simmer for a few minutes.

  3. Add the chopped onion and parsley, and cook until browned.

  4. Season with pepper, then add the stock or gravy.

  5. Mix in the minced meat and heat gradually until near boiling.

  6. Thicken with the flour, then stir in the catsup just before serving.

Prepare and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped cold meat, pepper, salt, onion, and soaked bread.

  2. Stir in the egg and mix well.

  3. Transfer to a baking dish and bake until nicely 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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the gravy a smooth, savory base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat rather than running thin.
Stock or gravy
Provides the liquid and savory flavor that carries the minced meat.
Egg
Binds the meat and bread mixture so it holds together when baked.
Soaked bread
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the baked mixture tender.

The step that matters

Heating the minced meat gradually. Heating the meat slowly to near boiling, rather than fast, helps keep the gravy smooth and prevents the meat proteins from toughening and seizing, leaving the texture tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, pepper, meat, bread, milk. 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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