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Ragout Beef

A slow‑cooked beef ragout with tomatoes, onions, cloves, cinnamon, salt pork, vinegar, and water, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ragout Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Take six pounds of the round beef.

  2. Cut up half a dozen ripe tomatoes with two or three onions in a vessel with a tight cover.

  3. Add half a dozen cloves, a stick of cinnamon, and a little whole black pepper.

  4. Cut gashes in the meat.

  5. Stuff the gashes with half a pound of fat salt pork cut into square bits.

  6. Place the meat on the other ingredients.

Braise

  1. Pour over half a cup of vinegar and a cup of water.

  2. Cover tightly and bake in a moderate oven.

  3. Cook slowly for four or five hours.

  4. When about half done, salt to taste.

Finish

  1. When done, take out the meat.

  2. Strain the gravy through a colander.

  3. Thicken the gravy with flour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

330Calories
30 gProtein
15 gFat
20 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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. 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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during long, slow cooking.
Ripe tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that combine with the onions to build the gravy.
Onions
Soften during cooking and add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that melts into the meat as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps balance the rich meat.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained gravy so it becomes richer and more cohesive.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for four or five hours. Long, low, moist heat breaks down the connective tissue in a lean cut like round, so the meat becomes tender rather than tough. Rushing with high heat leaves it dry and chewy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pork, cinnamon, vinegar, clove, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pork, cinnamon, vinegar, clove, pepper. 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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