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Another Recipe for Beef a LA Mode

A slow‑cooked beef dish with onions, spices, wine or tomato sauce, bay leaves, and carrots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 part like ribs.

Braise

  1. Place the meat in a Dutch oven with the browned onions, spices, vinegar, and tomato sauce.

  2. Add bay leaves and carrots.

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

  4. If needed, add 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
The main cut; slow simmering turns its connective tissue tender.
Onions
Browning them first adds sweetness and savory depth to the braising liquid.
Wine and vinegar or tomato sauce
Acidity and liquid that help tenderize the meat and build the sauce.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the braising liquid and gravy.

The step that matters

Simmering the beef. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the meat from toughening. Long, low heat slowly breaks down connective tissue into gelatin, so the beef becomes tender and moist. Basting keeps the surface from drying and helps it brown.

Swap the onion

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

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

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