Why it works: Beef and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,265 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Beef Heart
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the beef heart into slices ½ inch thick.
Soak the slices in salt water for 1 hour.
Roll the soaked slices in cornmeal.
Cook and serve
Brown the slices on both sides in hot fat.
Add water to the pan, cover, and cook slowly until tender.
Serve with brown gravy thickened with rice flour or barley flour.
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.
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Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,265 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef heart
- Is the main cut, becoming tender through slow cooking in moisture.
- Cornmeal
- Forms a crisp, browned coating on the slices when fried.
- Rice flour or barley flour
- Thickens the brown gravy served alongside the beef heart.
The step that matters
Cook slowly until tender. Beef heart is dense muscle with a lot of connective tissue. Slow, covered cooking in added water gives that tissue time to break down, while fast high heat leaves it tough and chewy.
“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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