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A Fricandeau of Beef

A braised beef dish larded with bacon and seasoned with spices, simmered in broth and wine, finished with a glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Fricandeau of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the beef with bacon and season with pepper, salt, cloves, mace, and allspice.

Braise

  1. Place the beef in a stew pan with broth, white wine, parsley, sweet herbs, garlic, and shallots.

  2. Cook until the meat is tender, then cover and skim the sauce.

Glaze and serve

  1. Strain the sauce and boil it until reduced to a glaze.

  2. Glaze the larded side of the beef and serve with sorrel sauce.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

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

Lean beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow cooking in liquid.
Bacon
Larding adds fat and moisture that keeps the lean beef from drying out.
Broth
Provides the cooking liquid that tenderizes the meat and forms the base of the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the braising liquid and sauce.
Shallots
Contribute a mild onion sweetness and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the strained sauce until reduced to a glaze. Reducing concentrates the gelatin and flavor of the braising liquid so it becomes syrupy and clings to the meat. If boiled too little it stays thin and runs off; if boiled too long it can turn overly salty and sticky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, clove, allspice, white wine, parsley, garlic):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, clove, allspice, white wine, parsley, garlic. 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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