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Beef Au Gratin

A casserole of sliced beef, fat salt pork, onion, parsley, and bread crumbs, baked in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Beef Au Gratin

Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Beef Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat your fireless cooker.

  2. Layer bread crumbs in a baking dish.

Assemble

  1. Add slices of fat salt pork, cold cooked beef, onion, and parsley.

  2. Top with another layer of bread crumbs.

  3. Pour left-over gravy over the layers to moisten.

Cook

  1. Cook in the fireless cooker for one hour using two radiators.

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. Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the layers and soak up gravy to hold the dish together.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that renders into the layers.
Cold cooked beef
Provides the main meat flavour and substance of the dish.
Left-over gravy
Moistens the layers so the crumbs and meat do not dry out.

The step that matters

Pour left-over gravy over the layers to moisten. Bread crumbs absorb liquid slowly, so enough gravy must reach every layer. Too little leaves dry, crumbly patches, while the gentle heat of the fireless cooker needs moisture to soften and cook the layers evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

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