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 ↓
Beef Ribs
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the ribs
Cook the beef ribs until tender, salting them when nearly done.
Remove the ribs from the stock.
Coat, fry and make gravy
Roll the ribs in salted and peppered flour.
Fry the ribs in a mixture of butter and lard.
Make gravy using the beef stock.
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.
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter 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
- Beef ribs
- Main meat, cooked until tender before being coated and fried.
- French's white lily flour
- Forms a dry coating that browns and crisps when the ribs are fried.
- Butter
- Fat that carries heat for frying and adds browning and rich flavour.
- Lard
- Fat that carries heat for frying and adds browning and rich flavour.
- Beef stock
- Liquid that becomes the base of the gravy, adding moisture and beefy flavour.
The step that matters
Fry the ribs in a mixture of butter and lard. The fat must be hot enough to set and brown the flour coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy; if too hot, it burns before the ribs are cooked through.
“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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