Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 76,993 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the meat and egg mixture
Chop one and a half pounds of round steak.
Beat two eggs, one tablespoon of flour, and two tablespoons of milk.
Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
Drop the mixture into a spider and fry until done.
Cure and press
Sprinkle salt on the bottom of a tub or firkin.
Add four pounds of brown sugar, four ounces of saltpetre, and four quarts of fine Liverpool salt, then mix the ingredients well together.
Pack the mixture evenly over the meat.
Press the meat closely together with a good weight.
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. See the original page.
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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Flour + milktop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together76,993 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together104,138 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,465 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together77,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together89,462 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and milk share little aroma chemistry, yet 76,993 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Round steak
- The main meat, which is chopped and then cured by packing it in the salt and sugar mixture.
- Eggs
- Bind the milk and flour into a mixture that holds together when fried.
- Flour
- Thickens the egg and milk mixture so it sets firmly in the pan.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the fried mixture.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharp, salty cure.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it a pink color.
The step that matters
Pack the mixture evenly over the meat. Salt, sugar and saltpetre draw moisture out of meat and preserve it only where they touch. An even layer, pressed firmly under weight, keeps the cure in contact with every part of the meat.
“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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