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Stewed Brisket of Beef

A slow-cooked beef brisket simmered with water, butter, cloves, salt, pepper, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Brisket of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Place the brisket in a kettle and cover it with water.

  2. Remove the scum as it rises and let it boil steadily for 2 hours.

Brown and stew

  1. Take the brisket from the kettle and brown it in butter in a skillet.

  2. Once browned on all sides, return it to the kettle and stew gently for 5 more hours.

  3. Add more water if it boils away.

  4. Season with cloves, salt, and pepper to taste.

  5. Half an hour before serving, add tomato or mushroom ketchup.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Clove + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Brisket of beef
Long, gentle stewing breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and moist.
Butter
Browning the meat in butter builds roasted, savory flavor on the surface.
Tomato or mushroom ketchup
Adds sweetness, acidity and savory depth to the cooking liquid.
Cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the stew at a gentle simmer. A hard, rolling boil toughens meat fibres and drives off liquid quickly. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue slowly soften, so the brisket stays tender. Topping up water keeps the meat covered.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, tomato):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, tomato. 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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