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Beef a-LA-Mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with spices, bacon, beer, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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

Make the braise

  1. In a pot, combine the beef, cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, sweet herbs, and bacon.

  2. Cover the ingredients with water.

  3. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, mushrooms, beer, salt, cayenne pepper, and vinegar.

  4. Stir in the bread crumbs and cover the pot tightly.

  5. Stew for 6 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the beef.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the beef and place it in a deep dish to keep warm.

  2. Strain the gravy through a sieve, discarding the mushrooms.

  3. Skim off the fat from the gravy and return it to the pot.

  4. Bring the gravy to a boil and season to taste.

  5. Pour the gravy over the beef and 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Long, slow stewing turns the tough cut tender while it gives up flavour to the gravy.
Bread crumbs
Thicken the cooking liquid into a body-rich gravy as they soften and break down.
Bacon
Its fat and smoky savour enrich the braising liquid and carry the spices.
Onions
Break down during stewing to add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Beer
Adds malty depth and some acidity to the braising liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, long-cooked gravy.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot tightly covered during the 6 to 8 hour stew. A tight lid keeps steam and liquid inside the pot, so the meat stays moist and the collagen slowly converts to gelatin instead of the beef drying out and toughening.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, allspice, parsley, onion, garlic, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, allspice, parsley, onion, garlic, mushroom. 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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