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Tomato Beef

A stew of lean beef simmered with tomatoes, onion, butter, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tomato Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into large steaks.

Stew

  1. Place the beef in a stewpan with the tomatoes, water, and onion.

  2. Stew slowly for 1.5 hours.

  3. Add salt, pepper, and cloves.

Finish

  1. Just before serving, add the butter and ketchup.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Lean beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow stewing.
Ripe tomatoes
Supply moisture and acidity that form the base of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, glossy finish to the sauce.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and tang that deepen the tomato flavour.

The step that matters

Stew slowly for 1.5 hours. Low, gentle heat lets the connective tissue in lean beef break down slowly, so the meat turns tender rather than tough. Boiling hard can toughen the muscle fibres and dry the sauce.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, onion, pepper, egg, butter, ketchup):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, onion, pepper, egg, butter, ketchup. 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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