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Beef a LA Mode

A roast beef stuffed with salt pork, bread crumbs, onion, herbs, and spices, then steamed and served with a port or sherry gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 roast

  1. Make several incisions in the tenderloin roast.

  2. Press bits of salt pork into the incisions.

  3. When the bone comes out, stuff the cavity with bread crumbs, chopped onion, herbs, egg, pepper, salt, and cloves.

  4. Press the beef into shape and tie the beef securely.

Brown and steam

  1. Place the roast in a pan or pot with a few slices of pork.

  2. Brown the meat on all sides over heat.

  3. Sprinkle a little flour over the meat and brown the meat again.

  4. Put the roast in a steamer and close the steamer tightly.

  5. Keep the water boiling for 3 to 4 hours.

  6. Boil carrots, turnips, or other vegetables in the water under the meat.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Make a gravy.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of port or sherry wine to the gravy.

  3. Pour the gravy over the meat and vegetables.

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

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

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Tenderloin roast
Forms the main body of the dish and is the meat that gets stuffed, browned and steamed.
Salt pork
Its fat melts into the meat during long cooking, adding moisture and richness.
Bread crumbs
Soak up juices inside the cavity, helping the stuffing hold together and stay moist.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb stuffing so it holds its shape when sliced.
Port or sherry wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling for 3 to 4 hours. Long, gentle steaming breaks down the connective tissue in the roast so it becomes tender. If the water boils dry or the steamer is not tightly closed, the meat can dry out and toughen.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, bread, parsley, egg, pepper, clove, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, bread, parsley, egg, pepper, clove, flour. 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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