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Ginger Beef

A stir-fried beef dish with ginger, garlic, and a sweet-sour sauce, served hot.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 27 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ginger Beef

Time30 minutes (marinating)

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut beef into matchstick strips, cutting along the grain. (The meat is easier to cut if it is partially frozen).

  2. To make ginger juice for the marinate, peel and grate ginger. Squeeze out the juice.

  3. Mix the four marinate ingredients. Add to beef and marinate for 30 minutes.

  4. Begin preparing vegetables: cut carrots, celery, and pepper into thin strips. Mince garlic. For ginger, use the leftover minced ginger from the preparation of ginger juice.

  5. Mix the sauce ingredients. Set aside.

  6. Beat the egg white and add water. Add flour and cornstarch. Mix the batter thoroughly. Drop the batter into the marinated meat.

Deep-fry the beef

  1. Heat wok. When heated, add 4–5 cups of oil. When the oil is ready, add about 1/4 of the meat/batter mixture. Deep-fry the beef until golden brown.

  2. Remove and set aside. Let oil return to original temperature and add more meat.

Stir-fry and serve

  1. When meat is cooked, clean the wok. Heat and add 1 tablespoon oil. When oil is ready, add the vegetables and begin stir-frying.

  2. Pour in the sauce and let it come to a boil. Add the deep-fried beef. Toss quickly, and remove.

  3. Sprinkle with sesame oil and serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1215Calories
48 gProtein
49 gFat
138 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 17 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Sesame1 tbsp (14g)120
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Honey1 tbsp (21g)64
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Waternot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Carrot + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,377 recipes

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

  4. Ginger + sesametop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main protein; cutting along the grain keeps the strips tender when cooked.
Egg white
Forms a light batter with flour and cornstarch that fries up crisp and golden.
Cornstarch
Creates a crisp coating on the beef and thickens the sauce as it boils.
Flour
Adds body to the batter so it clings to the meat and browns when deep-fried.
Dark soy sauce
Adds colour and savoury depth to the marinated beef.
Sugar
Balances the salty soy sauce and vinegar and helps the sauce caramelise slightly.

The step that matters

Deep-frying the beef in batches. Adding too much batter at once drops the oil temperature, so the coating soaks up oil instead of crisping. Letting the oil return to temperature between batches keeps the beef golden and crisp.

Swap the sesame

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, carrot, pepper, ginger, clove, garlic):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Sesamethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, carrot, pepper, ginger, clove, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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