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Braised Beef

Braised Beef is a slow‑cooked dish of beef with vegetables and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Braised Beef

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braised Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Fry the fat salt pork in a pan until rendered.

  2. Sear the beef in the hot pork fat, avoiding piercing it with a fork.

  3. Place the seared beef on a trivet in a baking pan or earthen crock.

  4. Surround the beef with the chopped vegetables and add boiling water.

  5. Add the peppercorns and dust the beef with flour, then sprinkle with salt.

Braise

  1. Cover tightly and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 4 hours, basting 5 or 6 times.

  2. Keep the liquid below boiling point for a tender, juicy result.

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.

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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lower round or rump beef
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy through long, slow braising.
Fat salt pork
Its rendered fat browns the beef surface and adds savory flavor during searing.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid as it softens.
Onion
Releases savory aroma and flavor into the braising liquid as it cooks.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavor to the braising liquid during the long cook.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and body to the braising liquid as it softens.

The step that matters

Keep the liquid below boiling point. Gentle, sub-boiling heat lets the connective tissue in the tough cut break down slowly, keeping the meat tender and juicy rather than tight and dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, carrot, turnip, celery, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, carrot, turnip, celery, 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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