Skip to main content
Main

Beef — Continued

A slow-cooked beef stew with bacon, wine, broth, calf's feet, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef — Continued

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the bacon into strips ½ inch thick and sprinkle with pepper.

  2. Lard the beef with the bacon strips and tie it into shape with string.

Simmer

  1. In a stewpan, combine the beef, wine, brandy, broth, water, calf's feet, and bacon rind.

  2. Add salt, bring to a boil, and skim the surface.

  3. Add carrots, onion, pepper, cloves, and sweet herbs.

  4. Cover and simmer for 4.5 hours on low heat.

  5. Remove the beef, calf's feet, and carrots when done and keep warm.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the gravy, remove fat, and reduce by one-fourth.

  2. Untie the beef, place on a dish, and garnish with calf's feet cut into pieces and carrots shaped like corks.

  3. Pour gravy over the dish and reserve any excess for later.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flank of beef
Forms the main body of the stew and becomes tender during long, slow simmering.
Bacon
Lardons add fat and savory flavor that melt into the beef during cooking.
Calf's feet
Their gelatin enriches the gravy, giving it body and a silky mouthfeel.
French white wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and flavor to the broth and gravy.

The step that matters

Simmering on low heat. Holding the liquid at a gentle simmer keeps the beef from toughening. Rapid boiling tightens muscle fibers and can leave the meat dry, while slow heat gradually breaks down connective tissue and collagen into gelatin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, brandy, carrot, pepper, clove, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, brandy, carrot, pepper, clove, butter. 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes