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Braised Beef

Braised beef simmered slowly with broth, gravy, vinegar, and optional calf's-foot jelly, finished with a cream‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Braised Beef

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Braised Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the beef

  1. Cover the beef with enough butter or clarified dripping to prevent burning.

  2. Cook slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Pour off the grease.

  4. Add the broth, gravy, vinegar, and calf's-foot jelly.

  5. Cover the pan.

  6. Cook for 2 more hours, basting frequently.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. When tender, remove the beef.

  2. Mix the flour with a little cream.

  3. Stir the mixture into the gravy.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. Pour over the beef.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Rump beef
Long slow cooking breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and moist.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy when stirred in with cream.
Calf's-foot jelly
Adds gelatin, giving the sauce body and a glossy, rich texture.
Vinegar
Adds a slight acidity that brightens the rich, fatty gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking slowly under a cover. Low, slow heat in a covered pan lets tough collagen convert to gelatin without drying the meat. Too much heat or too little liquid can scorch the beef before it becomes tender.

“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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