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Meat and Potatoes

A baked casserole of minced beef or mutton with onions, bell pepper, gravy, mashed potatoes, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Meat and Potatoes

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix minced beef or mutton with chopped onion, bell pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Add gravy to the meat mixture and stir well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spoon the mixture into scallop shells or small cups, filling them three-fourths full.

  2. Top with mashed potatoes mixed with cream.

  3. Place a bit of butter on top of the potatoes.

  4. 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.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. 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 the topping that softens and then browns in the oven.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the meat mixture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the potato topping and helps it brown.
Cream
Enriches the mashed potato topping, making it smoother and moister.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake in the oven until browned. Baking at high heat browns the potato topping through the Maillard reaction, which needs dry surface and sufficient heat. Pulling the dish too early leaves the top pale, while overbaking can dry the filling beneath.

“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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