Why it works: Beef and tea work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 417 recipes. Both carry 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan, which smells thiamin, meat. The science ↓
Sago Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream
In a stewpan, combine sago with a small amount of water and boil until dissolved.
Stir in the boiling beef tea and boiling cream.
Move the stewpan to the side of the fire and mix in the beaten egg yolks.
Serve
Serve while hot.
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 + teatop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together417 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
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Tea + creamtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together463 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Beef + creamtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,128 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Sago
- Starch that dissolves on boiling and thickens the liquid into a smooth cream.
- Beef-tea
- Adds savoury liquid body and flavour to the cream.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
- Egg yolks
- Enriches and further thickens the cream as they gently set off the heat.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the stewpan is too hot they can scramble and curdle the cream. Moving the pan aside before mixing them in keeps the texture smooth.
“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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