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Chipped Beef

A dish of sliced beef simmered in vinegar, then mixed with white sauce, eggs, butter, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chipped Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Place the sliced beef in a frying pan and cover with boiling water mixed with vinegar.

  2. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

  3. Heat the beef mixture until it reaches a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Drain the beef and chop it.

Make the dish

  1. Stir the chopped beef into a white sauce enriched with a beaten egg, seasoned with pepper and chopped parsley.

  2. Return the beef to the heat.

  3. Add butter and pepper to the pan.

  4. Scramble the beef quickly with the beaten eggs until soft.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they 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

Sliced or chipped beef
Provides the meat and savory flavor that forms the body of the dish.
Beaten eggs
Set when scrambled, giving the dish a soft, tender texture and binding it together.
White sauce
Supplies moisture and a creamy coating that holds the beef together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the scrambled eggs and beef soft.

The step that matters

Scramble the beef quickly with the beaten eggs until soft. Eggs set quickly when heated and turn rubbery if overcooked, so moving them over moderate heat only until just set keeps the texture soft.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, butter, pepper, egg, sauce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, butter, pepper, egg, sauce. 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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