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Beef X LA Mode

A slow-cooked beef stew with bacon, wine, vegetables, herbs, and a roux-based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,091 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the steak well with a wooden rolling pin.

  2. Lard the steak with bacon rolled in seasoning.

  3. Finely chop the vegetables and tie the herbs in muslin.

Braise

  1. Place the meat, wine, vegetables, and herbs in a stewpan.

  2. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the meat and add enough stock to barely cover it.

  3. Cook for about 2 hours in a covered pan.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the meat and keep it warm.

  2. Boil the gravy and thicken it with the roux.

  3. Season to taste, strain, reheat, and pour around the meat.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 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
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it cooks slowly in liquid.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that melts into the lean beef during the long cook.
Claret
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the braising liquid and gravy.
Brown roux
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat.
Onions
Build savoury sweetness and body into the braising liquid and gravy.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the braising liquid and gravy.

The step that matters

Cook for about 2 hours in a covered pan. Covering the pan and keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer lets the tough connective tissue in the beef break down slowly. Boiling hard or letting the liquid dry out leaves the meat tough and stringy.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, lemon, carrot, pepper, nutmeg. 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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