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Beef a LA Mode

A large piece of upper round beef, larded and slowly braised with vegetables and served with a brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Make several deep incisions into the meat with a thin, sharp knife, or with a steel.

  2. Press into the incisions lardoons of salt pork about half an inch square and two or three inches long.

  3. Put trimmings of pork, or two tablespoonfuls of drippings, into the bottom of a large iron pot.

  4. When the pot is hot, put in the meat and brown it on all sides by turning it to the bottom of the pot.

  5. Dredge the meat with flour and brown that also.

  6. Put a small plate under the beef to lift it off the bottom of the pot and prevent burning.

Braise

  1. Fill the pot with enough boiling water to half cover the meat.

  2. Add a half cupful each of sliced onions, carrots, and turnips, and a sprig of parsley.

  3. Cover the pot very tight so the meat cooks in steam, and simmer it for four or five hours.

  4. Add more boiling water when necessary.

  5. When the meat is done, place it on a hot dish and place some of the vegetables around and over it.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Put a tablespoonful of butter into a saucepan; when it bubbles, add a tablespoonful of flour and stir until browned.

  2. Add a cupful of liquor strained from the pot in which the beef was cooked; if there is not a cupful in the pot, add enough hot water to make that quantity.

  3. Season with pepper and salt and pour over the meat or serve separately.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

865Calories
41 gProtein
28 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 12 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Drippingnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0
Liquornot 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 Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Upper round of beef
Forms the main body of the roast, becoming tender through long, slow, covered simmering.
Drippings
Fat that browns the meat's surface and adds savory flavor during the initial sear.
Flour
Dredged on the meat to deepen browning, and cooked in butter to thicken the gravy.
Butter
Fat that is cooked with flour to form a roux, giving the gravy body and richness.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma into the braising liquid as they cook.

The step that matters

Brown the meat on all sides before braising. Searing creates browned surfaces through the Maillard reaction, which builds deep savory flavor that carries into the braising liquid and gravy. Pale meat will taste flat.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, meat, parsley, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, meat, parsley, butter, flour, 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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