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Beef a LA Mode

A larded beef joint braised slowly with calf's feet, stock, carrots and aromatics, then served in its reduced cooking liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bacon into strips, removing the rind.

  2. Sprinkle the bacon strips with pepper.

  3. Tie the beef and lard it along the grain.

Braise

  1. Place the beef in a stewpan with stock, bacon rind, and boned calf's feet.

  2. Bring to a boil, then skim the surface.

  3. Add carrots, onion with cloves, bouquet garni, garlic, and a little pepper.

  4. Cover the stewpan tightly and simmer for 4 hours.

  5. Once cooked, remove the beef, calf's feet, and carrots to keep warm.

  6. Remove all fat from the liquid.

  7. Strain the liquid into another stewpan and reduce over high heat for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the string from the beef, place it on a dish, and garnish with carrots and calf's feet.

  2. Pour the reduced liquid over the beef and serve.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flank of beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow simmering.
Calf's feet
Release gelatin into the stock, giving the reduced sauce body and a glossy finish.
Stock
Provides the cooking liquid that braises the beef and later becomes the reduced sauce.
Fat bacon
Larding strips add moisture and savoury flavour inside the lean beef as it cooks.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid and are served as a garnish.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the pot tightly covered. A low, steady simmer keeps the connective tissue in the beef and calf's feet breaking down into gelatin without toughening the meat. A rolling boil would tighten the muscle fibres and cloud the liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, garlic, pepper):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, garlic, pepper. 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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