Skip to main content
Main

Beef À LA Mode

A beef stew with calves' feet, bacon rind, carrots, onions, and glazed onions, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef À LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Braise

  1. In a stew pan, combine the beef, white wine, brandy, stock, water, calves' feet, and bacon rind.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  3. Once boiled, add the carrots, onion, cloves, herbs, and black pepper.

  4. Cover and simmer gently for 4.5 hours.

  5. Check the meat with a skewer for doneness.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the meat and vegetables to a serving dish, keeping them warm.

  2. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve, removing grease, and reduce it by a quarter over heat.

  3. Slice the beef and arrange it on the serving dish with the calves' feet, carrots, and glazed onions.

  4. Pour the sauce over the meat and taste for seasoning.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

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

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

Beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Calves' feet
Release gelatin into the liquid, giving the gravy body and a silky mouthfeel.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and absorb savory flavor from the braise.
Stock
Forms the main liquid base that carries flavor through the stew.
Bacon rind
Adds savory fat and salty, smoky depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam after boiling. Foam contains coagulated proteins and impurities that would cloud the liquid and taint the gravy if left in, so removing it keeps the sauce clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, brandy, carrot, clove, 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes