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Beef A-LA-mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with cloves, mace, allspice, herbs, bacon, onions, garlic, bay leaves, mushrooms, beer, vinegar, and bread crumbs.

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 the pot

  1. In a pot, combine the beef, cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, sweet herbs, and bacon pieces.

  2. Cover the ingredients with water.

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

Stew

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

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once cooked, place the beef in a deep dish to keep warm.

  2. Strain the gravy through a sieve.

  3. Remove the mushrooms from the gravy.

  4. Skim off the fat from the gravy.

  5. Return the fat to the pot and bring to a boil.

  6. Season the gravy to taste and pour it 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
Provides the meat that becomes tender through long, slow stewing in liquid.
Bacon
Its fat adds richness and flavour to the meat and gravy.
Onions
Break down during stewing, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.
Beer
Adds liquid and malty, slightly bitter flavour 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 flavours of the gravy.

The step that matters

Stew tightly covered for 6 to 8 hours. A tight lid keeps moisture in so the beef braises rather than drying out. Long, gentle heat breaks down tough connective tissue into gelatin, which makes the meat tender. Cooking time should follow the size of the cut.

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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