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Beef A-LA-mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with spices, bacon, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and beer, finished with a browned gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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

  1. Combine the beef, cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, sweet herbs, and bacon in a pot.

  2. Cover the pot with water.

  3. Add onions, garlic, bay leaves, mushrooms, beer, salt, pepper, Cayenne pepper, vinegar, and bread crumbs.

Stew

  1. Cover tightly and stew for 6 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the beef.

  2. Transfer the beef to a deep dish and keep warm.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy through a sieve.

  2. Remove the mushrooms from the strained gravy.

  3. Skim off the fat from the strained gravy.

  4. Return the strained gravy to the pot.

  5. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  6. Season the gravy to taste.

  7. Pour the gravy over the beef before serving.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  5. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, 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 dish and becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Bacon
Its fat adds richness and flavor to the stewing liquid and gravy.
Onions
Break down during stewing to add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Beer
Adds liquid and malty, slightly bitter flavor to the braising gravy.
Bread crumbs
Thicken the gravy as they soften and dissolve during the long stew.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, long-cooked gravy.

The step that matters

Stewing the beef slowly and covered. Long, gentle, moist heat breaks down the tough connective tissue in cuts like buttock or clod, making the meat tender. Covering the pot keeps the liquid from evaporating, so the beef stays moist and the gravy concentrates. Rushing with high heat would toughen the meat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, allspice, parsley, onion, garlic, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, allspice, parsley, onion, garlic, mushroom. 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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