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Beef-a-LA-mode

A slow‑cooked beef rump with bacon, calf's foot, herbs, carrots, onions, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef-a-LA-mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the bacon into 2‑inch long, ½‑inch square pieces.

  2. Lard the beef with the bacon pieces.

Braise

  1. Place the beef in a pan with the calf's foot (cut in half), sweet herbs, carrots, onions, salt, pepper, and water.

  2. Cover the pan to prevent steam from escaping.

  3. Once cooked, remove the fat from the top.

Serve

  1. Remove the herbs before serving.

  2. Serve the beef on a dish with the calf's foot on each side, surrounded by carrots and onions, and pour the gravy over it.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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 rump
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during long, moist cooking.
Fat bacon
Larded through the beef, it adds fat and flavour that keeps the meat moist as it cooks.
Calf's foot
Its gelatine enriches the liquid and gives the gravy body and a glossy, lightly thickened texture.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid and gravy.
Onions
Break down during braising, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Cover the pan to prevent steam from escaping. A tightly covered pan keeps moisture in, so the beef braises in its own steam and liquid rather than drying out. Gentle, sealed cooking breaks down the tough connective tissue in rump and produces a tender result and richer gravy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, pepper. 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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