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Alamode Beef

A large round of beef marinated in wine and spices, stuffed with a cracker mixture, then slow‑cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Alamode Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bone from the beef and wrap the skin around it to form a round shape.

  2. Wash the beef and drain it.

  3. Rub the beef with grated nutmeg, coarse sea salt, and pounded cloves.

  4. Pour 3 pints of wine over the beef and let it marinate overnight.

  5. Wrap the beef tightly in a strong cloth and sew it closed.

Make the stuffing

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing pounded crackers, sweet marjoram, pepper, salt, nutmeg, butter, wine, and eggs.

  2. Make deep holes in the beef.

  3. Fill the holes with the stuffing.

  4. Rub more spice and salt over the beef.

Cook and serve

  1. Tie a piece of twine around the beef for easy removal from the pot.

  2. Place a drainer in a pot.

  3. Add the beef to the pot.

  4. Pour in half of the wine and enough water to cover the beef.

  5. Cook over a slow steady fire for 3 hours.

  6. Season the gravy with salt and pepper 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.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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, becoming tender through long, slow cooking.
Claret or port wine
Marinates the meat and flavors the cooking liquid and gravy with acidity and aroma.
Eggs
Bind the cracker stuffing so it holds together inside the beef.
Pounded crackers
Absorb liquid and give the stuffing body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, keeping it moist.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a warm, aromatic herbal flavor to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Cook over a slow steady fire for 3 hours. Gentle, steady heat breaks down the connective tissue in a large cut of beef slowly, keeping it tender and moist. Fast or high heat would toughen the outside before the center cooks through.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, nutmeg, clove, port wine, pepper, egg, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramthe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, nutmeg, clove, port wine, pepper, egg, butter. 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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