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Australian Beef

A stew of Australian beef pieces simmered in a mushroom ketchup and stock gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Australian Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roll the beef pieces in flour.

  2. Melt the dripping in a saucepan.

  3. Mix in 2 tablespoons of ground rice and 1½ pints of stock until smooth.

Make the gravy

  1. Add bay leaves, peppercorns, salt, mushroom ketchup, and the onion.

  2. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the liquid and return it to the saucepan.

  4. Color the gravy with browning or melted sugar dissolved in boiling water.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the beef pieces and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

  2. Serve on a hot dish.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Ketchup + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender during a gentle simmer, giving the stew its body and chew.
Flour
Coats the beef and helps thicken the gravy as it cooks.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the gravy and carries the savory flavor of the stew.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma to the gravy as it simmers with the spices.

The step that matters

Simmer the beef gently. Vigorous boiling tightens muscle fibers and dries the meat, while a gentle simmer lets connective tissue soften and keeps the beef juicy and tender.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, walnut, flour, mushroom, ketchup, onion, sugar):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, walnut, flour, mushroom, ketchup, onion, sugar. 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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