Name: Beef with Catsup
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon lard; sliced cold beef; pepper; coarse sea salt; ½ pint catsup; boiling water; 1 tablespoon butter

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 ↓

Beef with Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Heat a skillet.
Add lard and sliced cold beef.
Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Mix catsup with boiling water and pour over the beef.
Add butter on top.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides the main protein, and its surface browns in the hot skillet for savory flavor.
Catsup: Adds sweetness and acidity, and its sugars help the sauce darken and turn glossy.
Lard: Fat that conducts heat evenly in the skillet and helps the beef brown rather than steam.
Butter: Adds richness and a rounded, buttery flavor as it melts over the finished dish.

“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.