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Beef a LA Xodb

A beef roast stuffed with bread crumbs, herbs, pickled pork, cloves, and wine, baked and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,091 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bone from the beef.

  2. Make deep incisions in the meat.

  3. Wash the meat.

  4. Season the meat well with salt and pepper.

  5. In a bowl, mix the crumbled bread, marjoram, basil, minced onions, mace, salt, and pepper with the butter.

  6. Fill the incisions in the meat with the dressing.

  7. Secure the filling with skewers.

  8. Tie a piece of wide tape around the meat to hold its shape.

Bake

  1. In a large stew kettle, place the pickled pork and water.

  2. Add the beef to the kettle.

  3. Stick the cloves into the top of the meat.

  4. Cover the kettle.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for several hours until well done.

  6. Once cooked, place the meat on a heated dish.

  7. Remove the pork.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. If the gravy is insufficient, add boiling water.

  2. Add flour to thicken the gravy.

  3. Stir in the browned sugar.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. When the gravy boils, add port or Madeira wine to taste.

  6. Let the gravy simmer briefly.

  7. Serve the meat with gravy poured over it.

  8. Garnish with boiled beets or carrots and parsley or celery.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Pepper + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + basiltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the roast, becoming tender through long, slow cooking.
Soft bread
Absorbs butter and juices in the filling, keeping the stuffing moist and light.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the filling, carrying flavour and keeping the meat moist.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy as its starch swells with heat.
Sugar
Browned sugar adds sweetness and deepens the colour and flavour of the gravy.
Port or madeira wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy, rounding out its flavour.

The step that matters

Cover the kettle and bake until well done. Beef from a tough round needs long, moist, gentle heat to break down connective tissue; too little time leaves it chewy, and the covered kettle keeps the meat from drying out.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, bread, marjoram, basil, onion, butter):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Sagebetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, bread, marjoram, basil, onion, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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