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Fricassee of Dried Beef

A creamy beef fricassee served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion 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 ↓

Fricassee of Dried Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Chip the dried beef very thin.

  2. Cover the beef with cold water, bring to a boil, then drain.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, stirring until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

  3. Season with nutmeg, pepper, onion juice, and salt if needed.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the beef and stir until hot.

  2. Add the beaten yolks of the eggs.

  3. Serve on 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.

  1. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + peppertop 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

Dried beef
Provides the salty, savory meat flavor and the main body of the dish.
Butter
Carries flavor and enriches the sauce with fat for a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as the flour cooks.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and, when gently heated, help thicken and enrich the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the beaten yolks of the eggs. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the sauce is too hot or boils after they go in, the proteins can scramble and curdle the sauce, so keep it warm and stir steadily.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, pepper, egg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, pepper, egg. 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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