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Fricandeau of Beef

A slow‑cooked beef steak braised with vegetables, herbs, stock, and larding bacon, finished with a reduced gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Fricandeau of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Trim the steak and lard it nicely.

  2. Place it in a stew pan on top of the vegetables and herbs.

  3. Pour in enough stock to come halfway up the meat.

  4. Cover with buttered paper and a lid.

Braise and finish

  1. Simmer gently in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1½ hours.

  2. Remove the lid and paper.

  3. Allow the lardons to crisp.

  4. Reduce the gravy until thick.

  5. Strain the gravy over the meat.

  6. Garnish with vegetables cut into fancy shapes and cooked in stock.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak or fillet
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, gentle braising.
Larding bacon
Adds fat and flavour that bastes the lean meat and crisps on the surface.
Stock
Provides the braising liquid whose reduction becomes the flavourful gravy.
Carrots
Flavour base under the meat, sweetening the stock as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid and paper on. Gentle heat at low oven temperature keeps the liquid from boiling, so the meat becomes tender and stays moist rather than tough and dry.

“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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