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Beef Alamode

A slow-cooked beef roll wrapped in bacon and seasoned with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Alamode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the beef with slices of fat bacon dipped in vinegar.

  2. Roll it up with chopped seasoning, cloves, sage, parsley, thyme, pepper, and green onions.

  3. Bind it tightly and place it in a saucepan.

Cook and serve

  1. Turn it when half done and let it cook for twelve hours on the stove.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Round of beef
Forms the main body of the roll and provides the meat that is cooked and sliced.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture that melt into the lean beef during the long cooking.
Vinegar
Acidity that helps tenderize the meat surface before the bacon is pressed in.

The step that matters

Turn it when half done. Long stovetop cooking can scorch the side touching the pan and dry the exposed side. Turning halfway spreads heat and moisture evenly so the roll cooks through uniformly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, clove, sage, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, clove, sage, parsley, thyme, pepper. 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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