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Braised Beef

Braised Beef is a slow‑cooked beef dish with vegetables and a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Braised Beef

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 ↓

Braised Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Spread the salt pork in a braising pan.

  3. Layer the chopped onion, carrot, turnip, and celery on top of the pork.

  4. Place the beef on the vegetables.

  5. Dredge the beef with salt, pepper, and flour.

  6. Cover the pan.

Braise

  1. Bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Add 1½ pints of water or soup stock.

  3. Baste the meat with the liquid.

  4. Dredge the meat again with salt, pepper, and flour.

  5. Cook for 4 hours.

  6. Baste every 15 minutes.

  7. After 2 hours, add another pint of stock or water.

  8. Mix the corn starch with ½ cup of cold water.

  9. Stir the mixture into the pan juices.

  10. Cook uncovered for the last 30 minutes until the meat is a delicate brown.

Serve

  1. Transfer the meat to a serving dish.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Season if necessary.

  4. Pour some gravy over the beef.

  5. Serve the rest separately.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + peppertop 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

Beef
Slow braising in liquid turns the tough cut tender and gives the meat its flavor.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan, adding richness and savory flavor to the braising liquid.
Flour
Coats the meat and thickens the pan juices into a gravy as they reduce.
Corn starch
Thickens the pan liquid into a smooth gravy when stirred in and heated.
Onion, carrot, turnip, and celery
Release sweetness and aroma into the braising liquid, building the gravy's flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch slurry into the pan juices. Cornstarch must be mixed with cold water first and then heated in the liquid; added dry or in hot liquid it clumps, leaving a lumpy gravy. It thickens only once the liquid reaches a simmer and starch granules swell.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, carrot, turnip, celery, pepper, 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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