Name: Frizzled Beef
Ingredients: 1 cup very thinly shaved dried beef; 1 sausage, sliced about 1 inch thick; 2 cups cold water; 1 tablespoon flour; 2 tablespoons butter (about the size of an egg); 1 egg; 1½ cups thin cream or rich milk (optional)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Frizzled Beef

Ingredients

1 cup very thinly shaved dried beef
1 sausage, sliced about 1 inch thick
2 cups cold water
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons butter (about the size of an egg)
1 egg
1½ cups thin cream or rich milk (optional)

Directions

Combine the beef, sausage, and cold water in a pot.
Boil for 2 minutes.
Stir in the flour, butter, and egg, then boil for another 2 minutes.
If using cream or milk, omit the butter and cook as above.
Serve hot.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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 main savoury, salty flavour and meaty texture in the dish.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid so it becomes a light, creamy gravy.
Egg: Adds richness and helps bind and thicken the gravy as it cooks.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the gravy a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.

“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.