Name: Ragout of Cold Beef
Ingredients: 1 lb cold beef; 2 onions, chopped; 1 oz butter

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 ↓

Ragout of Cold Beef

Ingredients

1 lb cold beef
2 onions, chopped
1 oz butter

Directions

Cut the cold beef into small pieces.
In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the chopped onions.
Add the beef pieces to the stewpan and fry together for 3-4 minutes.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold beef: Provides the main protein and bulk of the ragout, cooked gently to become tender in the sauce.
Onions: Soften and turn sweet as they cook in butter, adding flavour to the ragout.
Butter: Carries the onions' flavour and helps them soften and brown lightly in the pan.