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Beef A-LA-modc

A slow-cooked beef with bacon, vinegar, spices, and port, simmered for hours until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 18,971 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef into long slices.

  2. Make deep holes for larding.

  3. Dip bacon slices in vinegar.

  4. Coat bacon slices with the seasoning mix.

  5. Rub the beef with the seasoning.

  6. Bind the beef tightly with tape.

Braise

  1. Fry the onions until brown.

  2. Add the onions, carrots, turnip, celery, and a small amount of water to the beef.

  3. Simmer gently for 10-12 hours.

  4. Turn the meat twice until extremely tender.

  5. Remove the fat from the gravy.

  6. Keep the beef covered.

  7. Add the gravy back to the beef.

  8. Add a glass of port.

  9. Remove the tape.

  10. Serve with the vegetables or strain and serve diced as a garnish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Thick flank beef
Long, slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat very tender.
Fat bacon
Melting fat and larding carry moisture and richness into the lean beef.
Vinegar
Acidity softens the surface of the bacon and helps tenderise the meat.
Onions
Browned onions add sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Port
Adds sweetness and fruity aroma to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 10-12 hours. Too much heat makes the meat tough and dry, while a gentle simmer over a long time slowly converts collagen into gelatin, which gives tender, moist beef.

Flavor stand-ins for the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, pepper, clove, parsley, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, pepper, clove, parsley, thyme, marjoram. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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