Why it works: Beef and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,445 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
The recipe
8 servingsIngredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the egg noodles, and cook until tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
While the noodles cook, brown the lean ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it apart, for about 8 minutes until cooked through to 160°F (71°C) in the thickest part. Drain excess fat.
Season the beef with salt and ground black pepper to taste.
Stir the condensed tomato soup and condensed vegetable soup into the beef. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 3 minutes.
Add the drained noodles to the skillet and stir until evenly coated with the beef and soup mixture. Heat through for 2 minutes.
Lay the 8 slices of processed American cheese over the top, cover the skillet, and let them melt for about 2 minutes.
Stir the cheese gently into the mixture or serve it as laid, then spoon into bowls and serve hot.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Beef + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,913 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + cheesetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,892 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + cheesetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,191 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, beef, pepper, cheese):
- Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
- Tomatothe original
- Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, beef, pepper, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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