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Spiced Beef

A roast beef or veal stuffed with a spiced meat mixture, baked and served with a brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Remove the bone from the round of beef or fillet of veal.

  2. In a bowl, mix the grated bread, chopped suet, chopped bacon, butter, pepper, salt, onion, parsley, nutmeg, and allspice.

  3. Beat the yolks of the eggs until light and mix into the force meat.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the cavity where the bone was removed with the force meat.

  2. Shape the remaining force meat into balls and set them around the beef or veal.

  3. Bake the beef or veal in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Prepare a brown gravy by combining the gravy, wine, and catsup, and pour it over the meat when serving.

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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Soaks up moisture and binds the force meat so it stays tender rather than dense.
Beef suet
Adds fat that melts during baking, keeping the stuffing moist and rich.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the force meat as it cooks.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the force meat and help bind it together as it sets.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the force meat.

The step that matters

Beating the egg yolks into the force meat. Yolks must be beaten until light and then mixed in evenly, so they distribute through the stuffing and set it uniformly instead of leaving streaks or uneven binding.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, butter, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, allspice):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, butter, pepper, parsley, nutmeg, allspice. 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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