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Fricassee of Cold Roast-Beef

A fricassee made with thinly sliced cold roast beef, parsley, onion, butter, broth, egg yolks, port wine, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricassee of Cold Roast-Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into very thin slices.

  2. Shred a handful of parsley finely.

Make the fricassee

  1. Quarter the onion and place it in a stew-pan with butter and strong broth.

  2. Add the beef, parsley, salt, and pepper; simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks, port wine, and vinegar; stir quickly.

Serve

  1. Rub the serving dish with shallot and pour the fricassee into it.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Provides the meat that is gently warmed and served in the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the broth.
Strong broth
Forms the savory liquid base that the beef and sauce are built on.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Mix in the egg yolks, port wine, and vinegar; stir quickly.. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble if the sauce gets too hot or sits still. Stirring quickly spreads the heat evenly so the sauce becomes smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, butter, pepper, egg, port wine, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, butter, pepper, egg, port wine, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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