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Beef A-LA-mode

A beef roast laid on fat pork, seasoned with onion, mushrooms and parsley, and baked in water and grape juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Beef A-LA-mode

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately 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. Place a slice of fat pork in a roasting pan and lay the beef on top.

  3. In a bowl, mix the chopped onion, mushrooms, parsley, minced cloves, salt, and pepper.

  4. Sprinkle the mixture over the roast and dredge with flour.

Cook

  1. Add ½ cup of water to the pan and cover tightly.

  2. Cook in the oven for 3 hours.

  3. Halfway through cooking, pour ½ pint of grape juice over the roast.

Serve

  1. Serve with the sauce made from the remaining liquid.

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

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Forms the main body of the dish, and slow braising softens its tough connective tissue.
Fat pork
Adds fat that bastes the beef and carries flavour into the braising liquid.
Flour
Dredged on the roast, it thickens the pan liquid into a sauce.
Grape juice
Adds sweetness and acidity to the braising liquid, shaping the sauce's flavour.
White onion
Releases aromatic compounds and sweetness as it cooks in the pan juices.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and cook low for 3 hours. Covering traps steam so the pan stays moist, and long gentle heat breaks down the connective tissue in tough round beef. Rushing or uncovering can leave the meat dry and chewy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, onion, mushroom, parsley, pepper, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, onion, mushroom, parsley, 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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