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French Beef a LA Mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with butter, flour, water or gravy, savory herbs, carrots, onions, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Skewer the beef firmly into a good shape.

Brown and build the gravy

  1. In a thick saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Once boiling, stir in the flour and cook until amber in color.

  3. Add the beef and brown it on both sides, ensuring it doesn't stick.

  4. Gradually pour in the hot water or gravy, allowing each portion to boil before adding the next.

  5. Add the herbs, carrots, onions, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours, turning the beef halfway through.

  2. When ready to serve, lift the beef onto a hot dish, surround it with vegetables, and pour the gravy over it after removing the herbs and skimming off the fat.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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

Beef rump
Long, slow simmering turns this tough cut tender and gives the dish its main body.
Butter
Fat for browning the beef and carrying flavour into the sauce.
Flour
Cooked to amber, it thickens the gravy and adds colour and a toasted, nutty note.
Onions
Break down during simmering, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.
Carrots
Soften during the long simmer, adding sweetness and mild body to the gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the beef and the flour. Cooking the flour until amber and searing the beef on both sides builds the Maillard browning that gives the gravy its deep colour and savoury flavour. Pale or sticking browning leaves a weaker, scorched-tasting sauce.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, onion, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, onion, pepper. 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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