Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Beef a LA Mode
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the day before
The day before cooking, slash the beef at intervals and insert strips of salt pork.
Press chopped carrots, onion, and whole spices into the meat.
Lay the remainder over it and refrigerate overnight.
Cook
In the morning, place the meat in a large pot and nearly cover with hot water.
Close the pot and boil until the meat is tender.
Allow water to evaporate and brown the meat.
Remove the meat and add enough water to the pot to make gravy.
Serve
Pour the gravy over the meat on a platter.
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.
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,021 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef round
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow moist cooking.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the lean beef moist and enriches the gravy.
- Carrots
- Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor to the braising liquid and gravy.
- Onion
- Builds savory depth and aroma in the braising liquid and gravy.
- Whole spices
- Add warm aromatic flavor that infuses the meat during marinating and cooking.
The step that matters
Evaporating the water to brown the meat. Browning needs dry surface heat, and meat sitting in liquid steams instead of browning. Letting the water evaporate lets the surface reach the temperatures where browning reactions develop color and flavor.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, carrot, allspice, clove):
- Turnipfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, carrot, allspice, clove. 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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