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Frizzled Beef

A dish of thinly sliced smoked or dried beef cooked with water, butter, eggs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Frizzled Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Trim the smoky edges from the beef slices.

  2. Place the beef in a frying pan with a little water and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Add more water and a generous lump of butter, then cook for a few more minutes.

Add the eggs and serve

  1. Stir in 2 to 4 eggs, adjusting based on quantity and taste, and ensure it does not cook too dry.

  2. If necessary, add a little more water.

  3. Dust in a little flour and stir.

  4. Turn out onto a warm platter to 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 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

Smoked or dried beef
Provides the main savoury, smoky flavour and the substance of the dish.
Eggs
Set as they cook, binding the beef and giving a soft, tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the beef brown lightly.
Flour
Absorbs moisture and thickens the cooking juices, helping the eggs hold together.

The step that matters

Stir in the eggs without overcooking. Egg proteins set as they heat, so cooking too long turns them firm and dry, and the beef dries out with them. Adding a little water when needed keeps the mixture moist.

“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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