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A LA Mode Beef

A slow‑cooked beef with corned pork, spices, and mushroom ketchup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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A LA Mode Beef

Why it works: Summer savory and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 125 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A LA Mode Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the meat around the bone from the round beef, keeping it whole.

  2. Cut strips of uncooked corned pork, half an inch wide.

  3. Insert the strips into the beef.

  4. Mix allspice, cloves, mace, summer savory, sweet marjoram, ginger, and salt.

  5. Make incisions in the beef.

  6. Introduce the spice mixture into the incisions.

  7. Prepare the beef a day before cooking to enhance flavor.

Braise

  1. Lay thin slices of corned pork in a stew pan.

  2. Place the beef on top of the slices.

  3. Tie the beef tightly with tape.

  4. Add thyme and parsley on top of the beef.

  5. Scatter sliced onions over the beef.

  6. Pour cold water over the beef.

  7. Simmer slowly for four hours, keeping it covered.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Half an hour before serving, remove the gravy.

  2. Skim off the fat from the gravy.

  3. Strain the gravy.

  4. Add mushroom ketchup and flour to the gravy.

  5. Simmer for a few minutes.

  6. Pour the thickened gravy over the beef.

  7. Remove the herbs and onions before serving.

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. Summer savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow simmering.
Corned pork
Adds savory fat and salty flavor that seasons the meat from within and beneath.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savory flavor and umami to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the beef.
Onions
Release sweetness and aromatic flavor into the cooking liquid as they simmer.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly, keeping the pot covered. Gentle, covered simmering keeps the liquid below a hard boil and traps moisture, so the tough connective tissue in the round breaks down slowly without the meat drying out or toughening.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, allspice, clove, summer savory, marjoram, ginger):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, allspice, clove, summer savory, marjoram, ginger. 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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