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Dried Beef in Cream

A dish of dried beef simmered in a thickened milk sauce and served with a potato border.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Dried Beef in Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the skin and stringy parts from the dried beef, then mince it into small pieces.

  2. Cover the minced beef with boiling water and let it soak for ten minutes, then drain.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Dilute the flour with enough water to make a pourable paste, then beat until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the hot milk while stirring briskly.

  3. Cook the mixture in a double boiler for fifteen minutes.

Brown and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a skillet, add the beef, and toss until slightly browned.

  2. Add the thickened milk to the beef and stir until thoroughly blended.

  3. Serve in a potato border.

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 + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Dried beef
Provides the salty, savory meat base that carries the dish's flavour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce, giving richness and body.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and helps the beef brown in the skillet.
Potatoes
Form the border that holds the creamed beef for serving.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce gently in the double boiler. Flour-thickened milk can scorch or form lumps if overheated. A double boiler keeps the heat gentle and even, so the starch swells smoothly into a uniform cream sauce.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, flour. 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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