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Dried Beef, with Cream

A dish of finely shaved dried beef simmered in cream or milk and butter, thickened with flour, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Dried Beef, with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Shave the beef very fine.

  2. Soak the beef in cold water until it returns to its original size.

  3. Remove the beef from the water when it is soft and the water is hot (do not boil).

Make the cream sauce

  1. Pour on the cream (or milk and butter) and add a pinch of pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil and thicken with flour mixed in a little milk.

  3. Serve on dipped toast or as desired.

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

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

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Dried beef
Provides the main savory, salty meat flavor and the substance of the dish.
Cream
Adds richness, fat, and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells when heated with the liquid.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour mixed in milk. Flour mixed into a little cold milk first disperses evenly, so it does not clump when added to the hot cream. Starch must be heated with the liquid to swell and thicken the sauce, so the mixture should come to a boil to set properly.

“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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