Skip to main content
Main

Beef in Cumin Sauce

A stew of beef simmered in a cumin-based sauce with tomatoes, garlic, onions, lime or lemon juice, and optional mint.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cumin and sauce work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and 707 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. In a large pot, bring the meat to a boil in an inch of water. Cover and reduce heat.

  2. While the meat is cooking, make a sauce by combining all the remaining ingredients in a separate pot. Bring to a slow boil. Turn off heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the sauce to the meat. Simmer until meat is done, and then simmer some more.

  2. Serve with Baton de Manioc / Chikwangue or Fufu.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cumin + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together707 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lime + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,216 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,491 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,272 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

Stew meat
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long simmering in the sauce.
Tomato paste
Concentrates tomato flavour and thickens the sauce, adding body and colour.
Onions
Break down during cooking to add sweetness and body to the sauce.
Tomatoes
Add acidity, moisture and fresh tomato flavour to the sauce.
Cumin
Supplies the warm, earthy aroma that defines the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the sauce to the meat and simmer until done. Stew meat is tough until its connective tissue breaks down with long, gentle simmering. Stopping early leaves it chewy, so keep it at a low simmer until fork-tender.

Flavor stand-ins for the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, garlic, onion, pepper, tomato, cumin, sauce):

  1. Avocadoabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, garlic, onion, pepper, tomato, cumin, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Meatless Tomato SoupIllustrationMeatless Tomato Soup23 recipesIllustration of Tomato SoupIllustrationTomato Soup526 recipesIllustration of Cream of Tomato SoupIllustrationCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesIllustration of Tomato BisqueIllustrationTomato Bisque61 recipes