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Small Ribs of Beef, a LA Mode

Small ribs of beef braised in sherry or Madeira, brandy, and consomme, then finished in the oven and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Small Ribs of Beef, a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the beef

  1. Prepare the ribs of beef for braising.

  2. Moisten with sherry or Madeira and brandy, then simmer on the stove for 15 minutes.

  3. Add consomme.

  4. Cover with buttered paper and lid, and simmer for 3-4 hours.

Glaze and serve

  1. Drain and trim the beef.

  2. Place in a pan with some of its own liquid and dry in the oven for a few minutes.

  3. Glaze the beef.

  4. Dish it up and garnish with glazed vegetables.

  5. Serve with the braising essence reduced to half-glaze.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Small ribs of beef
The main cut; long braising breaks down its connective tissue until tender.
Sherry or madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps carry flavour into the braising liquid.
Consomme
Provides a savoury meat-based liquid that gives moisture and flavour during braising.
Butter
Enriches the glaze with fat for shine and a rounded flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 3-4 hours under a buttered paper and lid. A gentle simmer keeps the liquid just below a boil so the tough connective tissue softens slowly without the meat drying out or toughening. A tight cover with buttered paper keeps moisture in the pot.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sherry, brandy, butter, carrot, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sherry, brandy, butter, carrot, onion. 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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