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Frizzled Beef

Frizzled Beef is a dish of dried beef simmered with butter, egg yolk, cream, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Frizzled Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the beef

  1. Combine the cold water and dried beef slices in a stewpan.

  2. Simmer for a few minutes.

  3. Add the butter and melt it.

  4. Remove the beef and keep it warm.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the egg yolk.

  2. Slowly add the cream or milk mixed with flour.

  3. Pour this mixture into the boiling liquid, stirring to prevent curdling.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Simmer for a few minutes.

  6. Pour in the cream or milk.

Serve

  1. Serve over the beef.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + buttertop 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
Supplies the salty, savory meat flavor and the thin, delicate texture of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavor to the cooking liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture as its starch swells with heat, giving the sauce body.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture, richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and cream mixture to the boiling liquid. Pouring it in slowly while stirring spreads the flour evenly and keeps the dairy from curdling or forming lumps under sudden heat.

“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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