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Stewed Brisket of Beef, with French Beans

A slow‑cooked beef brisket simmered with onions, spices, and French beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Stewed Brisket of Beef, with French Beans

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Brown and start the stew

  1. Hang the brisket before a 400°F (200°C) fire for 30 minutes to brown, basting well.

  2. Place the brisket in a stewpan with chopped onions and enough water to reach the top without covering it.

  3. Bring to a boil and skim the surface.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add pepper, mustard, soy sauce, anchovy sauce, sugar, mushroom ketchup, grated nutmeg, and vinegar.

  2. Simmer gently for 4.5 hours, skimming frequently.

  3. Add the French beans and a mixture of vinegar and flour.

  4. Continue to simmer for another hour and serve with the beef in the center and beans 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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Brisket of beef
Long gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and moist.
Onions
Soften and release sweetness and savoury body into the cooking liquid.
Soy sauce
Adds savoury depth and a salty, umami richness to the braising liquid.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp and salty seasonings.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy sauce.
French beans
Add a fresh, crisp-tender vegetable contrast to the rich beef.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, skimming often. A rolling boil toughens meat and clouds the sauce. A slow simmer lets collagen convert to gelatin gradually, so the brisket becomes tender while the liquid stays clear and rich.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper, sauce, anchovy, sugar, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, sauce, anchovy, sugar, mushroom. 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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