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Beef a LA Mode

A roasted beef stuffed with bread, herbs, onions, and cloves, served with a sweetened port gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bone from the beef and cut deep incisions in the meat.

  2. Wash the meat and season it well with salt and pepper.

  3. In a bowl, mix the crumbled bread, marjoram, basil, minced onions, mace, salt, and pepper with the butter.

  4. Fill the incisions in the meat with the dressing and secure with skewers.

  5. Tie the meat with a piece of clean tape to keep its shape.

Braise

  1. In a large stew kettle, place the pickled pork and add the water.

  2. Add the beef to the kettle and stick the cloves into the top.

  3. Cover the kettle tightly and cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for several hours until well done.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Once cooked, place the beef on a heated dish and remove the pork.

  2. If the gravy is insufficient, add boiling water and flour to thicken it.

  3. Stir in the browned sugar and season to taste.

  4. Bring the gravy to a boil, then add the port or madeira wine.

  5. Let it simmer briefly, then serve the beef with gravy poured over it.

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. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef round
Forms the main body of the dish; long slow cooking makes it tender.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the bread dressing inside the meat.
Baker's bread
Soaks up butter and juices, keeping the stuffing moist and tender.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.
Port or madeira wine
Adds depth and acidity to the finished gravy.
Sugar
Browned sugar adds colour and a deeper sweetness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the beef until well done in a tightly covered kettle. Tough round cut needs long, moist heat to break down connective tissue; a loose lid lets the liquid evaporate and the meat dry out.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, bread, marjoram, basil, onion, butter. 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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