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Entree of Beef Steaks

Braised beef steaks larded with bacon, cooked with Port wine, bay leaf, allspice, garlic, onion, parsley, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Entree of Beef Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the steaks with bacon seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt.

Braise

  1. Braise the steaks in a pot with water, bay leaf, allspice, garlic, onion, parsley, and Port wine.

  2. Cook until the steaks are done and the liquid is nearly reduced.

Serve

  1. Place the steaks on a dish and strain the cooking liquid over them.

  2. Serve with fried bread around the dish.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

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

  4. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steaks
Thick cuts that become tender and juicy during slow, moist braising.
Bacon
Melting fat from the larding adds richness and moisture to the lean beef.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and its acidity helps flavour the reducing braising liquid.
Onion
Releases sugars and aroma as it softens, building a savoury base for the liquid.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows and becomes sweeter during long cooking.

The step that matters

Cook until the liquid is nearly reduced. Reducing concentrates the braising liquid into a flavourful sauce, but over-reduction can make it too salty and thick, while stopping early leaves it thin and watery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, allspice, clove, garlic, parsley, port wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, clove, garlic, parsley, port wine. 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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