Name: Chipped Beef and Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: 1 green pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped; 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons butter, divided; 8 ounces finely chipped beef; ½ cup water; 2 teaspoons tomato ketchup; hot buttered toast

Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chipped Beef and Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a skillet, brown the chopped green pepper and onion in 1 tablespoon of butter.
In a saucepan, cover the chipped beef with cold water and bring to a boil.
Drain the water, add 1 tablespoon of butter, and cook for several minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

Stir in the browned pepper and onion, and add the tomato ketchup.
Serve the mixture on hot buttered toast.

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.

Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chipped beef: Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, and helps brown the vegetables.
Green pepper: Adds a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and some texture.
Onion: Adds savory sweetness and aroma when browned.
Tomato ketchup: Adds tomato flavor, acidity and a touch of sweetness to the sauce.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, butter, beef, ketchup):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, butter, beef, ketchup. 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.