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Alamode Beef

A slow‑cooked beef stew with onions, vinegar, flour, and optional mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice 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 ↓

Alamode Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into pieces of 2 to 3 ounces each.

Brown and thicken

  1. In a deep stew pan, heat some beef dripping to prevent sticking.

  2. Mix the minced onions with the beef, previously dipped in vinegar, and add to the pan.

  3. When hot, sprinkle flour over the meat until thickened.

  4. Gradually add boiling water while stirring with a wooden spoon.

Season and stew

  1. Season with black pepper, allspice, and bay leaves, adding mushrooms if desired.

  2. Let it stew slowly for 4 to 5 hours.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the stew and becomes tender during long, slow cooking.
Beef dripping
Adds richness and fat that helps prevent the meat from sticking to the pan.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften into the stew.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps tenderize the surface of the meat.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling water gradually. Adding water slowly while stirring keeps flour from clumping and lets the sauce thicken evenly. Adding it all at once can leave lumps in the stew.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, vinegar, flour, pepper, truffle. 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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