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Dried Beef

A dish of boiled and sliced beef fried with butter, pepper, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dried Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Place slices of uncooked beef in a frying pan and cover with boiling water.

  2. Cook over heat for 10 minutes, then drain the water.

  3. Cut the meat into small bits with a knife and fork.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the meat to the hot pan with 1 tablespoon of butter and a little pepper.

  2. Add 4 beaten eggs for every ½ pound of beef and stir for about 2 minutes.

  3. Serve in a covered dish.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Uncooked beef
Provides the main protein, which firms and dries as it cooks, giving the dish its body.
Eggs
Set with gentle heat to bind the meat and give a soft, tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and keeps the meat and eggs from drying out.

The step that matters

Add 4 beaten eggs for every ½ pound of beef and stir for about 2 minutes. Eggs set quickly in a hot pan. Stirring only until they are just set keeps them soft; overcooking squeezes out moisture and makes them dry and rubbery.

“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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