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Smoked Beef and Eggs

A breakfast dish of smoked beef, eggs, milk, butter, parsley, and pepper cooked in a pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Smoked Beef and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Place the smoked beef in a frying pan and cover with boiling water.

  2. Scald for 5 minutes.

  3. Discard the water and add a small lump of butter to the pan.

Cook the eggs

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs until smooth.

  2. Add the milk and a dash of pepper.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan with the beef and butter.

  4. Stir over medium heat, scraping the egg from the bottom of the pan.

  5. Remove from heat just before the eggs are fully set, continuing to scrape the bottom.

  6. Serve immediately for breakfast.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a soft, creamy structure as they cook and form the body of the dish.
Smoked beef
Adds a salty, smoky flavor that carries through the eggs.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the beaten eggs, keeping them tender.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the pan.

The step that matters

Remove from heat just before the eggs are fully set. Eggs keep cooking from residual heat after leaving the pan. Pulling them off while still slightly glossy keeps them soft and prevents them from turning dry and rubbery.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, milk, butter, pepper. 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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