Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓
Pot-roast of Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the meat
Heat fat or pork in a wide, flat-bottomed kettle, add sliced onions, and fry until browned on all sides.
Pour boiling water over the meat to cover it, then cover with a lid.
Cook slowly
Boil gently, adding just enough water as it evaporates to prevent burning.
Turn the meat occasionally to brown evenly over a slow fire.
Season the meat with salt an hour before done.
Make the gravy
To make gravy, add hot water to the drippings and thicken with browned flour.
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.
-
Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
-
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Forms the main body of the dish; long slow cooking makes it tender.
- Onions
- Soften and sweeten as they fry, adding aroma and flavour to the drippings.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the drippings into gravy as its starch swells with liquid.
- Fat
- Carries heat for the initial browning and adds richness to the drippings.
The step that matters
Adding water during the slow boil. If the liquid evaporates completely, the meat and onions can scorch on the base of the pot. Adding just enough water keeps the pot moist and the heat gentle, so the meat cooks through and browns evenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, flour):
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
- Chivefits about as well
- Turnipfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, flour. 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.
More pot roast recipes
You might also like
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Pork Cake107 recipes
Corned Beef87 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.