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Beef A-LA-mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, herbs, bacon, onions, garlic, bay leaves, champignons, porter, and red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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

Prepare the pot

  1. Combine the beef, cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, herbs, bacon, pepper, and salt in a pot.

  2. Cover the beef with water and add the chopped onions, garlic, bay leaves, and champignons.

  3. Pour in the porter or ale and red wine, then cover the pot tightly.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew for 6 hours for a small piece or 8 hours for a large piece.

  2. Remove the beef, place it in a dish, and keep it warm.

  3. Skim the fat from the gravy, strain it through a sieve, and add the champignons back in.

  4. Season the gravy with cayenne pepper and salt, then boil for 15 minutes.

  5. Serve the beef in a soup dish with the gravy on the side.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that enriches the beef and the gravy during stewing.
Onions
Break down during stewing to add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Porter or ale
Adds malty depth and acidity that help tenderize the meat while stewing.
Red wine
Adds acidity and color, helping to tenderize the meat and deepen the gravy.
Champignons
Contribute earthy flavor and moisture to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stew for 6 to 8 hours with the pot tightly covered. Long, gentle, moist heat breaks down the tough connective tissue in a braising cut of beef, making it tender. Lifting the lid or boiling hard can dry the meat and toughen it.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

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