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Dried Beef Gravy

A gravy made from shredded dried beef, butter, milk, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Dried Beef Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Shred the dried beef into small pieces.

  2. Place the shredded beef in a skillet.

  3. If the beef is not fragrant, pour boiling water over it.

  4. Let the beef sit briefly.

  5. Drain the water.

Make the gravy

  1. Add butter to the skillet and sizzle for 2 minutes.

  2. Pour in the milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Mix flour with a little water to create a smooth paste.

  4. Add the paste to the skillet to thicken.

  5. Season with pepper and salt if necessary.

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

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Milk + flourtop 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 defines the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and carries flavor through the gravy.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into gravy.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, cohesive gravy as it heats.

The step that matters

Adding the flour paste. Flour must be mixed smooth with a little cold water before adding, otherwise it clumps. Starch swells as the liquid heats, so the gravy thickens evenly only when the paste is fully dispersed and the mixture is kept hot while stirring.

“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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