Name: Chipped Beef Creamed
Ingredients: 1 pound dried beef, chipped thin; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 pint milk; 2 egg yolks, beaten smooth; dash of cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon kitchen bouquet; slices of toast

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chipped Beef Creamed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

Cover the chipped beef with boiling water and let it stand for a few minutes, then drain.

Make the sauce

Melt the butter in a skillet and add the beef, heating it thoroughly.
Dust the beef with flour and stir well.
Add the milk and stir constantly until cooked.
Pour the hot mixture over the beaten egg yolks, season with cayenne and kitchen bouquet, and mix well.

Serve

Pour the mixture over slices of toast and serve.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beef: Provides the salty, savory meat flavor that forms the body of the dish.
Butter: Carries the flavor into the pan and enriches the sauce with fat.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce as it cooks.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it creaminess.
Egg yolks: Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding richness and a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the beaten egg yolks. Egg yolks scramble if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Adding the hot sauce gradually while stirring gently warms the yolks, so the sauce thickens smoothly without curdling.

“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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Chipped Beef Creamed