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Australian Beef

A stew of Australian beef pieces simmered in a gravy made from dripping, ground rice, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Australian Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roll the beef pieces in flour.

  2. Melt the dripping in a saucepan.

Make the gravy

  1. Mix in the ground rice and stock until smooth.

  2. Add bay leaves, peppercorns, salt, mushroom ketchup, and the onion.

  3. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  4. Strain the liquid back into the saucepan.

  5. Color the gravy with browning or melted sugar dissolved in boiling water.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the meat to the gravy and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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

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

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

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

  3. Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

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

  4. Walnut + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together430 recipes

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

  5. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meat; long gentle simmering softens its connective tissue for tender bites.
Dripping
Adds fat for frying flavor and carries the seasonings through the stew.
Ground rice
Thickens the stock into a smooth, body-rich gravy as it cooks.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the gravy and supplies savory flavor.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after bringing to a boil. Vigorous boiling toughens meat and can break up the pieces, while a gentle simmer lets collagen slowly soften, tenderizing the beef and keeping the gravy smooth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, walnut, flour, rice, mushroom, ketchup, onion):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, walnut, flour, rice, mushroom, ketchup, onion. 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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