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Beef a LA Mode

A stuffed beef roast simmered with spices, wine, onions, garlic, and optional mushrooms, served with a savory gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bone from the round of beef.

  2. Stuff the beef with chopped bacon mixed with ground cloves, allspice, mace, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and sweet herbs. Bind the beef.

Stew

  1. Place the beef in a pot.

  2. Cover the pot with water and white wine.

  3. Add chopped onions, garlic, cayenne, vinegar, salt, and mushrooms if using.

  4. Sprinkle grated bread over the mixture.

  5. Cover the pot.

  6. Stew gently for six hours or more.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the beef from the pot.

  2. Keep the beef warm over boiling water.

  3. Strain the gravy.

  4. Skim off the fat.

  5. Return the gravy to the pot.

  6. Boil briefly.

  7. Adjust seasoning if desired.

  8. Pour the gravy over the beef.

  9. Serve.

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.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Round of beef
Forms the main body of the roast, becoming tender through long, gentle stewing.
Bacon
Melts its fat into the meat and gravy, adding richness and savory flavor inside the roast.
Grated bread
Thickens the cooking liquid slightly and helps give the gravy body.
Onions
Break down during stewing, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, helping flavor the meat and gravy.
Mushrooms
Release savory, earthy flavor into the gravy as they cook.

The step that matters

Stew gently for six hours or more. Low, gentle heat over a long time breaks down the tough connective tissue in a beef round, making it tender. Boiling hard can toughen the muscle fibers and leave the meat dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, allspice, mace, nutmeg, pepper, white wine):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, allspice, mace, nutmeg, pepper, white wine. 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.

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