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Beef, Stewed Shin of

A slow‑cooked beef shin stew with celery, onion, carrots, turnips, and mushroom ketchup, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef, Stewed Shin of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Saw the bone into 4 or 5 pieces and cover with hot water.

  2. Bring to a boil and remove any scum that rises to the surface.

  3. Add the celery, onion, herbs, allspice, and seasoning, then simmer gently until the meat is tender.

Add vegetables and make the gravy

  1. Peel the vegetables, cut them into desired shapes, and boil with the onions until tender.

  2. Lift out the beef and place it on a hot dish.

  3. Thicken the cooking liquid with butter and flour to make gravy, stirring until it boils.

  4. Strain and skim the gravy, then return it to the saucepan.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and the broth rich.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the cooking liquid into gravy, while butter adds richness and smooth body.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami depth to the gravy.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity depth that rounds out the savory broth.

The step that matters

Thicken the cooking liquid with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked while stirred until the liquid boils, or it stays raw-tasting and lumpy. Stirring keeps starch dispersed so it thickens evenly.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, onion, pepper, carrot, turnip, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, onion, pepper, carrot, turnip, butter. 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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