Why it works: Tea and pepper work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 260 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Beef a LA Mode
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Wash and wipe a round of beef.
Cut out the bone, and fill the place with a rich stuffing made of bread crumbs, highly seasoned with pepper, salt, and onions.
Have ready a teaspoonful of salt; also, a teaspoonful of pepper, cloves, mace, and nutmeg.
Make incisions in the beef with a knife, and put in them strips of pork fat rolled in the spices.
Sprinkle the remainder of the spices over the top of the beef.
Cover the whole with pork fat to prevent burning.
Tie the beef all around with tape, and skewer it well to keep it in place.
Bake and finish
Place in an oven with at least three quarts of water, and let it bake five or six hours (a small piece will require less time).
Baste constantly with butter and lard mixed with a small quantity of flour.
When nearly done, skim off the fat and thicken the gravy.
Season with walnut catsup and wine.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Tea + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together260 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef (in the method)
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow braising.
- Pork fat (in the method)
- Adds moisture and richness as it melts, keeping the lean beef from drying out.
- Bread crumbs (in the method)
- Absorb juices and fat in the stuffing, giving it a moist, soft texture.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the basting fat and later the gravy, giving it body.
- Wine (in the method)
- Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the gravy.
The step that matters
Skim off the fat and thicken the gravy when nearly done. Fat rises to the surface of the cooking liquid, so skimming first keeps the gravy from tasting greasy. Thickening near the end, once the liquid has reduced and concentrated, gives a smooth, well-bodied sauce rather than a thin or lumpy one.
“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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