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Beef a LA Mode

A braised beef dish with vegetables, claret, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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

  1. Lard the beef and pour the vinegar over it.

  2. Chop the vegetables and place them on top of the beef.

  3. Let it marinate for a few hours.

  4. Pour off the vinegar and place the beef in a deep pot.

Brown and cook

  1. Fry the beef on both sides quickly until browned.

  2. Add the browned flour, 1 quart of water, and the vegetables.

  3. Cook for 20 minutes for each pound of beef.

  4. Optionally, add 1 cup of claret.

  5. If necessary, add a little more water.

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. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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

Round beef
Provides the main substance; long slow cooking tenderises its tough connective tissue.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the beef and adds a tangy note.
Browned flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a rich, slightly toasted gravy.
Claret
Adds wine acidity and depth of flavour to the braising liquid.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and body to the gravy as they soften.
Onion
Adds savoury aromatic depth that builds the sauce's flavour base.

The step that matters

Browning the beef. Frying the beef quickly until well browned creates Maillard flavour compounds that carry through the whole braise. Pale meat yields a flat, washed-out gravy.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, onion, pepper, celery, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, onion, pepper, celery, flour. 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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