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Beef a LA Mode

A braised beef from the round stuffed with forcemeat, fat pork, and vegetables, served with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut a solid piece of beef from the round and tie it into shape with stout cords, spaced 1 inch apart.

  2. Insert strips of fat salt pork into the meat, projecting ½ inch at the top and bottom.

  3. Make incisions in the beef with a sharp knife and fill them with forcemeat.

Braise

  1. Place the meat in a braising pot and cover it with chopped onion, carrot, turnip, celery, bay leaves, and sliced tomato.

  2. Sprinkle the mixture with mace and paprika.

  3. Pour in 1 cup of cold water, cover closely, and cook slowly for 15 minutes per pound.

  4. Remove the cords.

Make the gravy

  1. Strain the gravy.

  2. Let the gravy cool to separate the fat.

  3. Skim the fat.

  4. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

Serve

  1. Pour half the gravy over the meat.

  2. Pour the remaining gravy into a gravy boat.

  3. Let the meat cool in the gravy with a weight on top until the next day.

  4. Remove the cords and slice thinly.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef from the round
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and sliceable through slow braising.
Fat salt pork
Strips of fat baste the lean meat from within, adding moisture and rich flavor during cooking.
Forcemeat
Fatty stuffing fills the incisions, keeping the interior moist and adding richness.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor and color.
Bay leaves
Contribute an aromatic herbal flavor to the braising liquid and gravy.

The step that matters

Cook slowly with the pot covered. Low, gradual heat in a tightly covered pot breaks down the tough connective tissue in round cut beef into gelatin, making it tender. Rushing with high heat or uncovering the pot dries and toughens the meat.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, onion, bread, carrot, celery, tomato):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, onion, bread, carrot, celery, tomato. 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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