Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Pot Roast of Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Braise the beef
Place the boneless beef in a large pot with boiling water.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and add onion pieces.
Cook on low heat, turning the meat once or twice, for about 15 minutes per pound.
Brown and make the gravy
When done, transfer to a dripping pan and brown slightly in the oven at 300°F (150°C).
Allow the gravy to cool, then skim off the grease.
Thicken the gravy with browned flour, boil once, and add a dash of catsup.
Pour part of the gravy over the meat and serve the rest in a gravy dish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Boneless beef
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow cooking and gives the dish its main body.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the gravy as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
- Onion
- Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid, which becomes the gravy.
- Catsup
- Adds tomato acidity and sweetness to the gravy.
The step that matters
Cooking on low heat. Gentle, low heat lets the tough connective tissue in the beef break down slowly into tender meat. Boiling hard can toughen the muscle fibers and leave the meat dry and stringy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour):
- Chivefits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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