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Another Recipe for Beef a LA Mode

A slow‑cooked beef dish with onions, wine, vinegar, spices, and optional tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Another Recipe for Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slightly brown the onions in butter or dripping.

  2. Skewer the meat if using a round cut; other cuts like ribs can also be used.

  3. Lay the browned onions on top of the meat.

Braise

  1. Place the meat in a Dutch oven with spices, vinegar, and other ingredients.

  2. Simmer for two hours, basting occasionally until nicely browned.

  3. If needed, add some stock and ½ cup of tomato sauce for gravy.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 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

Round of beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during long, slow simmering.
Onions
Browning them adds savory, sweet flavor that carries into the braising liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps tenderize the meat and balances its richness.
Wine
Contributes acidity and depth of flavor to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently and baste. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer lets the tough connective tissue in the round break down slowly. Too vigorous a boil toughens the meat's outer fibers and dries the surface, so regular basting helps keep it moist and evenly browned.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, wine, vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, carrot):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, wine, vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, carrot. 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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