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Creamed Corned Beef

A dish of diced cold corned beef simmered in white sauce with minced celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,370 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Creamed Corned Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dice the cold corned beef to a heaping pint.

  2. Make 1 cup of white sauce.

Make the creamed beef

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of minced celery to the white sauce and keep it hot for 10 minutes before serving.

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 + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sauce + celerytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,360 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beef + saucetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,650 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Corned beef
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the dish.
White sauce
Coats the diced beef, adding moisture and a creamy, binding texture.
Celery
Adds a mild, fresh aroma and a slight crunch to the savory mixture.

The step that matters

Keeping the sauce hot. Hold the white sauce warm over gentle heat rather than letting it boil. A flour-thickened sauce can scorch on the bottom or form a skin, and boiling can make it thin or grainy, so the beef will not blend smoothly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Pepperfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sauce. 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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