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Beef a LA Mode

A roasted beef dish flavored with cloves, mace, allspice, savory, parsley, thyme, marjoram, and bacon, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef into a large piece, removing any excess fat.

  2. Mix cloves, mace, allspice, savory, parsley, thyme, and marjoram with vinegar to create a spice mixture.

  3. Slice the bacon to match the thickness of the beef and coat it in the spice mixture.

  4. Make incisions in the beef and insert the bacon slices.

  5. Rub the remaining spice mixture over the beef and dredge with flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the beef in a baking dish with butter and water.

  2. Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until tender.

  3. Strain the gravy.

  4. Serve with pickles.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during slow baking.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture that melt into the meat, keeping it juicy and flavourful.
Flour
Dusted on the surface to help the coating thicken the gravy and brown.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the baking dish, aiding browning and flavour.
Vinegar
Acidity that helps carry the herbs and spices into the meat.

The step that matters

Bake until tender. Lean cuts of beef become tender only with long, gentle heat that breaks down connective tissue; too little time leaves the meat tough, while the gravy depends on the juices released during baking.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, allspice, parsley, thyme, marjoram, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, allspice, parsley, thyme, marjoram, vinegar. 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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