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A LA Mode Beef

A roast beef prepared with a bread and herb dressing, simmered with onion and optional wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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A LA Mode Beef

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

A LA Mode Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Tie the beef with strong string in a round shape.

  2. Rub pepper, salt, ground cloves, and sugar over the meat the night before cooking.

  3. Mix bread, sweet herbs, cloves, salt, pepper, and eggs together to make a dressing.

  4. Make holes in the meat about 2 inches apart and fill them with the dressing.

  5. Sew up the holes.

Stew and make gravy

  1. Stick the onion full of cloves and place it in the pot with the beef.

  2. Add 2 quarts of water (or 1 quart of water and 1 quart of red wine for better flavor).

  3. Place skewers in the pot about 2 inches from the bottom and lay the beef on them.

  4. Cover the pot closely and stew gently, turning the meat 2 or 3 times while cooking.

  5. Skim the fat from the cooking liquid, thicken it slightly, and use for gravy.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Clove + red winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Round of beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during slow, gentle stewing.
Eggs
Bind the bread dressing so it holds together when filled into the meat.
Baker's bread
Forms the body of the dressing that fills the holes in the meat.
Red wine
Adds depth of flavour to the cooking liquid, which later becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Stew gently with the lid closed. Slow, low-heat stewing with the lid on lets collagen in the tough beef break down into tender meat while the liquid stays from boiling away too fast. Turning the meat helps it cook evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, clove, sugar, bread, egg, red wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, clove, sugar, bread, egg, red wine. 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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