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Cold Braised Beef

A beef roast braised slowly in wine, stock, and aromatics, then chilled and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Cold Braised Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Braise

  1. Tie the beef with string and place it in a stewpan.

  2. Add ham or bacon, calve's foot, onion, carrots, garlic, sweet herbs, celery, cloves, pepper, and salt.

  3. Pour in the white wine or brandy and cold stock or water.

  4. Cover with buttered paper and the lid.

  5. Simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours.

  6. If possible, place hot cinders on the lid during cooking.

  7. Once cooked, remove the beef.

Press and serve

  1. Place the beef under a weight until cold.

  2. Trim the beef neatly.

  3. Glaze the beef with reduced gravy.

  4. Garnish with the remaining jelly.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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

Rump or round beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and sliceable during long, slow simmering.
Calve's foot
Releases gelatin into the cooking liquid, which sets as the dish cools to form the jelly.
Ham or bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour that seasons the beef and the surrounding liquid.
White wine or brandy
Adds acidity and aromatic flavour to the braising liquid.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Onion
Contributes savoury sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours. A gentle simmer breaks down connective tissue and gelatin slowly, making the beef tender. A hard boil toughens the meat and clouds the liquid, so keep the heat low and the liquid barely moving.

Swap the garlic

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, onion, carrot, clove, celery, 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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