the library

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.

Every one of its 12 compounds carries a paper the library can cite.

• benzaldehydearomaaldehydereads as burning aromatic taste (PubChem)Measured in 57 of 341 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')
• octanalaromaaldehydereads as fruity (PubChem)Measured in 40 of 341 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 341 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 (PubChem)Measured in 87 of 341 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 341 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 341 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 34 of 341 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 341 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 341 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 (PubChem)Measured in 23 of 341 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 341 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 (PubChem)Measured in 62 of 341 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')