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Alamode Beef

A beef stew with bread and suet stuffing, simmered with spices, wine, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Alamode Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Mix the grated bread, shredded suet, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram, eggs, pepper, and salt to make a stuffing.

  2. Make holes in the beef with a sharp knife and press the stuffing into the holes.

Stew the beef

  1. Place sticks or skewers at the bottom of the pot to prevent burning.

  2. Place the beef in a pot with water, mace, whole pepper, cloves, and chopped onion.

  3. Stew the beef over low heat.

  4. When the beef is half done, turn it over and skim off excess fat.

  5. Before the beef is fully cooked, mix some cooking liquid with flour and red wine.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the bulk of the stuffing and absorbs juices, giving it a soft, moist body.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape inside the beef.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smoother, heavier sauce when mixed in.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the cooking liquid and sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and wine mixture. Flour stirred in raw can clump, so it should be mixed with some hot cooking liquid first and then blended into the pot to thicken evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, beef, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram, egg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, beef, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram, egg, pepper. 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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