Name: Beef a LA Mode
Ingredients: 10 pounds beef buttock; 2 large onions, finely chopped; ¼ pound fresh butter or clarified beef dripping; flour for coating; 1 gallon boiling water; 2 teaspoons ground allspice; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 2 bay leaves

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the beef into pieces about ¼ pound each.
In a large stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the chopped onions.
Coat the beef pieces in flour and add them to the pan, stirring for 10 minutes.
Gradually add more flour as needed, ensuring the meat does not burn.
Slowly pour in the boiling water, stirring continuously.
Add the ground allspice, black pepper, and bay leaves.

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.

Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Swap the allspice

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

Garlicfits better
Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, butter, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.