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Beef a LA Mode

A beef stew with claret, carrots, onions, and aromatics, simmered slowly after browning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Trim the beef.

  2. Bone the beef.

  3. Lard the beef.

  4. Place the beef in a bowl with the claret, lemon juice, chopped onion, cloves, salt, pepper, and bouquet garni.

  5. Let the beef marinate for 2 hours, basting frequently.

  6. Drain the beef.

Brown and make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Fry the beef until browned.

  3. Lightly fry the button onions at the same time.

  4. Remove the beef and onions from the stewpan.

  5. Add the flour to the stewpan.

  6. Fry the flour until it turns nut-brown.

  7. Add the stock to the stewpan.

  8. Add the marinad to the stewpan.

  9. Stir until boiling.

Braise and serve

  1. Return the beef and onions to the stewpan.

  2. Season to taste.

  3. Add the sliced carrots.

  4. Cook gently for 2 to 3 hours, stirring and skimming occasionally.

  5. Place the dish on a hot dish.

  6. Strain the sauce over.

  7. Garnish with groups of onions and carrots.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 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

Rump of beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, slow cooking.
Claret
Its acidity and flavour penetrate the meat during the marinade.
Butter
Fat for frying that carries flavour and helps the beef brown.
Flour
Browned in the fat, it thickens the stock into a rich sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid that the beef gently simmers in to become tender.
Larding bacon
Fat threaded through the lean beef that keeps it moist while cooking.

The step that matters

Fry the flour until it turns nut-brown. Flour that is browned too little leaves the sauce pale and floury tasting, while over-browning makes it bitter. Cooking it in fat until nut-brown builds colour and a deeper flavour before the liquid is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, carrot, parsley, thyme, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, carrot, parsley, thyme, lemon. 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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