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Beef-a-LA-mode

A slow‑cooked beef dish with bacon, herbs, vegetables, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef-a-LA-mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Dip the bacon slices in vinegar, then coat with a mixture of salt, black pepper, allspice, clove, and the chopped herbs.

  2. Make deep holes in the beef to insert the bacon.

  3. Rub the beef with the seasoning and bind it tightly with tape.

Braise

  1. In a well-tinned pot, add the beef, fried onions, carrots, turnip, celery, and a small amount of water.

  2. Simmer gently for 10-12 hours, turning the meat twice, until extremely tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the fat from the gravy.

  2. Keep the beef covered.

  3. Combine the beef and gravy, adding the port wine.

  4. Remove the tape.

  5. Serve with the vegetables.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 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 flank
Long, slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue, making the meat very tender.
Bacon fat
Melts into the meat during cooking, adding moisture and savory richness.
Onions
Fried brown first, they add deep savory flavor and color to the gravy.
Carrots
Break down during braising, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, acidity and depth to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Long, gentle simmer. Holding the pot at a gentle simmer for 10-12 hours lets collagen in the tough cut slowly convert to gelatin, which makes the meat tender. Boiling hard would toughen the fibers and dry the meat.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, pepper, allspice, clove, parsley, thyme):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, pepper, allspice, clove, parsley, thyme. 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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