Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
Beef a LA Mode
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Wash the beef in cold water and dry it off.
Pound the beef with a wooden mallet.
Lard the beef with fat bacon.
Cut the bacon into wedge-shaped pieces. Press the bacon pieces into deep incisions in the beef.
Season the beef with salt and pepper on both sides. Dredge the beef with flour.
Brown and braise
Heat the butter in a Dutch oven until hot. Brown the beef on both sides.
Add enough hot water to half cover the beef. Add bay leaves, juniper berries, cloves, cider vinegar, and onions.
Cover the pot and cook slowly for 2 hours if the beef is young, or 2.5 hours if old. After 1 hour, turn the beef.
Replenish with boiling water if the liquid is too low.
Make the gravy
When done, the water should reduce to a brown gravy.
Lift the beef out and skim off some fat from the gravy.
Add more hot water to the gravy, boil for a minute, stir well, and strain into a gravy dish.
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.
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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Clove + cidertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,683 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef from the rump
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, moist cooking.
- Fat bacon
- Larding adds fat and moisture inside the lean beef as it cooks.
- Fresh butter
- Browns the beef surface and adds richness to the pot.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the braising liquid and gravy.
- Onions
- Release sweetness and flavour into the braising liquid, which becomes the gravy.
- Juniper berries
- Add a resinous, aromatic flavour to the braising liquid.
The step that matters
Brown the beef on both sides. Searing the floured surface in hot butter creates browned, savoury compounds through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat gives a weaker flavour and a dull gravy, and the browned bits help colour the liquid.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, cider, vinegar, onion):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, cider, vinegar, onion. 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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