Skip to main content
Main

Beef

A braised beef seasoned with ham or bacon, onion, garlic, herbs, vinegar, port wine, and oil, served with gravy, horseradish, and carrots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,091 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Hang the rump of beef for 2 to 6 days.

  2. Remove the bone and lard the beef with small pieces of ham or bacon.

  3. Roll the ham or bacon in a mixture of minced onion, garlic, thyme, parsley, pepper, and salt.

Marinate

  1. Add the remaining seasoning to 1 pint of vinegar, 1 pint of port wine, and 1 teaspoon of salad oil.

  2. Steep the beef in this mixture overnight.

Roast and serve

  1. Before cooking, wrap the beef in paper and roast it on a spit, basting frequently.

  2. Serve with thickened brown gravy, garnished with scraped horseradish and boiled carrots.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump of beef
Is the main cut that becomes tender and flavourful during long soaking and slow roasting.
Vinegar
Acidic marinade that helps tenderise the meat and adds a sharp tang.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, depth and aroma to the marinade and the meat's flavour.
Ham or bacon
Lardoons add fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean beef moist as it cooks.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the seasoning coating the lardoons.

The step that matters

Basting during the spit roast. Frequent basting keeps the wrapped beef's surface moist so it does not dry out over the long roast, and the fat and juices help build browning and flavour.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, onion, garlic, thyme, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Rosemaryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Celeryabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, onion, garlic, thyme, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Roast BeefIllustrationRoast Beef211 recipesIllustration of Beef LoafIllustrationBeef Loaf175 recipesIllustration of Carrot SoupIllustrationCarrot Soup134 recipesIllustration of Corned BeefIllustrationCorned Beef87 recipes