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A LA Mode Beef

A roast beef cooked slowly with herbs, wine, ketchup, and served with force‑meat balls made from bread, suet, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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A LA Mode Beef

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

A LA Mode Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bone from the beef and tie it into a round shape.

  2. Make small incisions in the beef, cutting deeply inside.

  3. Fill the holes with stuffing, reserving some for the force-meat balls.

  4. Place the beef in a large pot and cover it with water.

  5. Season the beef with salt, pepper, cloves, onion, and herbs.

Make the force-meat balls

  1. To make force-meat balls, mix grated bread with chopped beef suet and seasonings.

  2. Wet the mixture with eggs and roll into small balls.

  3. Fry the balls in a little butter if desired.

Cook

  1. Boil slowly for 2 hours.

  2. Add red wine and tomato ketchup.

  3. Add the force-meat balls.

  4. Cook for an additional 20 minutes.

  5. Add water if the gravy boils away.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Beef round
Forms the main body of the roast, becoming tender through long, slow simmering.
Beef suet
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and force-meat balls, keeping them moist.
Bread
Bulks out the stuffing and balls and absorbs liquid, giving a soft texture.
Eggs
Bind the bread and suet mixture so the force-meat balls hold their shape.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the cooking liquid and gravy.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and flavour to the seasoning of the beef.

The step that matters

Add water if the gravy boils away. Boiling dries the cooking liquid and can toughen the meat's surface; keeping enough liquid covering the beef keeps it moist and tender during the long simmer.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, clove, onion, red wine, tomato, 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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