Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Dried Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Slice the dried beef very thin.
Place the sliced dried beef in a frying pan and cover with water.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour off the water, then add the milk, butter, and flour.
Make and serve
Stir well and heat until thickened.
Just before serving, quickly stir in the egg.
Alternatively, finely chop the beef, freshen it, and add butter and eggs.
Stir well and serve immediately.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 salty, savoury meat flavour that defines the dish.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds richness.
- Egg
- Adds richness and body to the sauce when stirred in at the end.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg just before serving. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding it at the last moment and stirring quickly keeps it smooth rather than letting it scramble or curdle in the hot sauce.
“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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