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Braised Beef Short Ribs

A slow‑cooked dish of bone‑in beef short ribs braised with wine, tomato paste, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and thyme.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Oven350°F
Time2.5–3 hours

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

  2. Remove any large fat deposits on the sides of the ribs.

  3. Season all sides with salt and pepper.

Brown the ribs

  1. Heat about 2 tbsp of olive oil in Dutch oven over medium‑high heat.

  2. Add ribs and brown on all sides.

  3. Work in batches to avoid crowding.

  4. Remove meat from the pan and set it aside.

Make the braising base

  1. Sauté the vegetables until soft (about 5–10 minutes).

  2. Mix tomato paste with enough wine to thin (⅓ bottle).

  3. Deglaze pan with wine and scrape up any fond.

  4. Add tomato paste mixture, salt, and pepper to taste.

  5. Add ribs (nestle in vegetables) and add sprigs of thyme.

  6. Add remainder of wine to just almost cover the ribs.

Braise and serve

  1. Cover and braise in oven for 2.5–3 hours.

  2. Turn ribs once while cooking.

  3. Serve ribs with braising liquid and vegetables over mashed potatoes, along side new potatoes, or over egg noodles.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

505Calories
30 gProtein
29 gFat
26 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Celery Stalks1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef short ribs
Connective tissue breaks down during long braising, leaving the meat tender and rich.
Wine
Acidity and liquid that help build flavour in the braising sauce and tenderise the meat.
Tomato paste
Concentrated savoury depth and body that thickens and colours the braising liquid.
Onion
Sweetness and aroma that build the base of the braising liquid as it softens.
Carrots
Natural sweetness and body that flavour the braising liquid as they cook down.
Celery
Savoury aroma and background flavour that add depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Brown the ribs in batches. Browning builds deep flavour through the Maillard reaction, which needs direct contact and space. Crowded meat steams instead, leaving a pale, less flavourful crust.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, olive, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, thyme):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, olive, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, thyme. 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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