Name: Frigassee of Cold Roast Beef
Ingredients: 1 lb cold roast beef; 1 onion, chopped; 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley; 3 oz butter; broth to cover; pepper to taste; salt to taste; 2 egg yolks (optional)

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 ↓

Frigassee of Cold Roast Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the beef into very thin slices.

Cook

Place the beef in a stew pan with the chopped onion, parsley, butter, seasoning, and broth.
Simmer gently for 30 minutes.
If desired, stir in the yolks of two eggs 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef: Is the main protein, gently softened and warmed in the simmering broth.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, rounding out the flavor of the broth.
Egg yolks: Stirred in at the end to thicken the sauce slightly and add richness.

Swap the onion

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

Potatofits better
Chivefits better
Carrotfits better
Onionthe original

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