Why it works: Beef and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,533 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
To Boil Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Put a quart of cold water for every pound of meat in a large pot.
Bring the pot to a boil, then allow 20 minutes of cooking time for each pound of beef.
Keep the pot boiling slowly.
Skim off the scum that rises to the surface carefully. Add a little cold water to help the scum rise again for easier skimming.
The more thoroughly you skim, the cleaner the boiled meat will look.
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 + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,435 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef joint
- Provides the main protein, which firms and turns tender-textured as it cooks slowly in water.
- Moist sugar
- Adds a little sweetness and depth to the flavour of the cooking liquid.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it steadily keeps the broth and meat clean-looking, while letting it cook back into the liquid can make the result cloudy.
“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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