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A LA Mode Beef

A roast beef stuffed with onion, pork fat, spices, and mustard, baked slowly in a Dutch oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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A LA Mode Beef

Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

A LA Mode Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Hang the beef until tender, then salt it well on both sides.

  2. Make deep incisions in the upper surface of the beef every 2-3 inches.

  3. In a bowl, mix the minced onion, fat pork or bacon, salt, sugar, sage, thyme, savory, celery seed, red pepper, mace or nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and mustard until well combined. Stuff the mixture into the incisions in the beef.

Braise

  1. In a Dutch oven, melt the butter and lard over coals. Dredge the bottom of the Dutch oven with flour. Sift flour over the beef.

  2. Add boiling water until it reaches within 2 inches of the top of the beef.

  3. Cover the oven and place coals on top.

  4. Cook for 7 hours, moving the beef occasionally to prevent sticking. Add boiling water as needed.

  5. Baste the meat with the liquid in the oven.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Thyme + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef round
Forms the large cut that becomes tender through long, slow cooking.
Fat pork or bacon
Adds fat and moisture that melts into the meat and keeps it juicy.
Onion
Adds moisture and savory flavor as it softens within the stuffing.
Butter and lard
Fat that enriches the cooking liquid and helps build browning on the surface.
Flour
Dredged and sifted over the meat, it helps thicken the cooking liquid and aids browning.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the fat and meat.

The step that matters

Keeping the liquid level and cooking low and slow. Seven hours of braising relies on steady moisture. Adding boiling water as needed keeps the beef from drying and sticking, while gentle heat breaks down connective tissue into tender, juicy meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, sugar, sage, thyme, celery, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, sugar, sage, thyme, celery, pepper. 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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