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Beef
Meat, fish & cheese· meat
What it is
Beef is the meat of cattle, Bos taurus, raised for meat and dairy worldwide.
What it tastes like
On the nose: saline, oily, apple, fatty. Among its measured molecules: methyl nonanoate, methyl caprate, methyl palmitate, methyl isovalerate, trimethylamine.
What goes with it
- Black teaboth carry 3-methylbutanal, applecite
- Almondboth carry 3-methylbutanal, applecite
- Green teaboth carry heptanal, fattycite
Salt and acid
Salt
Salt not measured yet.
Acid
Acid not measured yet.
Unusual pairings
Pairs the library can cite that almost nobody makes.
- Beef + Olive
both carry 3-methylbutanal, apple (37 of 338 carry it)
- Beef + Baked salmon
both carry trimethylamine, saline (6 of 338 carry it)
- Beef + Grilled tuna
both carry trimethylamine, saline (6 of 338 carry it)
Every one of its 12 compounds carries a paper the library can cite.
benzaldehydearomaaldehydereads as burning aromatic taste (PubChem)Measured in 54 of 338 ingredients.cite
0.21% of total peak area raw, rising to 0.35-0.58% grilled (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Benzaldehyde')caprylaldehydearomaaldehydereads as strong, fruity odor (PubChem)Measured in 37 of 338 ingredients.cite
0.57% of total peak area raw, rising to 2.93-3.97% grilled (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Octanal')trimethylaminearomanitrogen compoundreads as saline taste (PubChem)Measured in 6 of 338 ingredients.cite
1.18% of total peak area raw, essentially unchanged across grilled temperatures (1.01-1.30%, p = 0.02) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Trimethylamine')hexanalaromaaldehydereads as sharp, aldehyde odor (PubChem)Measured in 85 of 338 ingredients.cite
1.12% of total ion-chromatogram peak area in raw beef (DI-HiSorb extraction), rising to 3.78-4.49% across the five grilled doneness points (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Hexanal', 'R' column vs 'G55'-'G85' columns)methyl capratearomaesterMeasured in 2 of 338 ingredients.cite
4.25% of total peak area raw, falling to 0.18-0.86% grilled (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Methyl decanoate')methyl octanoatearomaesterreads as oily, somewhat orange taste (PubChem)Measured in 6 of 338 ingredients.cite
2.48% of total peak area raw, falling to 0.98% (G55), 0.86% (G60) and 0.00% at G71 and above (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Methyl octanoate')heptanalaromaaldehydereads as fatty taste (PubChem)Measured in 33 of 338 ingredients.cite
1.21% of total peak area raw, rising to 4.69-6.17% grilled (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Heptanal')methyl palmitatearomaesterMeasured in 4 of 338 ingredients.cite
16.48% of total peak area raw -- the single largest identified compound in the raw profile -- falling to 5.27-10.75% grilled (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Methyl hexadecanoate')methyl isovaleratearomaesterMeasured in 4 of 338 ingredients.cite
6.25% of total peak area in raw beef -- present ONLY raw, reading exactly 0.00% at every one of the five grilled temperatures (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Methyl 3-methylbutanoate')3-methylbutanalaromaaldehydereads as apple-like odor (PubChem)Measured in 22 of 338 ingredients.cite
2.21% of total peak area raw; not significantly different across grilled temperatures (4.55-5.59%, ns) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row '3-Methyl butanal')methyl nonanoatearomaesterMeasured in 1 of 338 ingredients.cite
3.59% of total peak area raw, falling monotonically to 0.19% by G85 (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Methyl nonanoate')nonanalaromaaldehydereads as orange-rose odor (PubChem)Measured in 59 of 338 ingredients.cite
5.95% of total peak area raw -- already the single largest peak in the raw profile -- rising further to 9.95-12.72% grilled (p < 0.01) — Morsli et al. 2025, Foods (Table 1, row 'Nonanal')
Sources
- Morsli et al. 2025, Foods