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Beef a LA Mode

A stuffed roast beef seasoned with spices and bread crumbs, roasted slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

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.

Season and stuff the beef

  1. Mix salt, pepper, ginger, mace, cinnamon, and cloves.

  2. Rub the mixture into the beef and let it sit overnight.

  3. Combine bread crumbs, diced pork, thyme, sage, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and minced onion.

  4. Moisten the stuffing with milk or water.

  5. Stuff the mixture into the beef where the bone was removed.

  6. Use a skewer to secure the ends of the beef and bind with tape.

  7. Make incisions in the beef.

  8. Fill the incisions with stuffing.

Roast and serve

  1. Dredge the beef with flour.

  2. Place the beef in a dripping pan and pour hot water over it.

  3. Cover with a large pan to retain steam.

  4. Roast at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours.

  5. If the meat is tough, stew it in water until tender before roasting.

  6. If serving hot, skim fat from the gravy.

  7. Stir in beaten egg yolks before serving.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Upper round of beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender and moist during long, gentle roasting.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and carries flavor through the meat.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorbs liquid and fat in the stuffing, giving it body and a soft texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the gravy, adding richness and helping it thicken slightly.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the stuffing as it cooks.

The step that matters

Roasting at a low temperature under steam. Long, gentle heat under a covered pan lets connective tissue in the beef break down slowly, keeping the meat tender and juicy. Cooking it too hot or uncovered can dry and toughen the meat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, ginger, cinnamon, clove, beef, bread, pork):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, ginger, cinnamon, clove, beef, bread, pork. 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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