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Of Beef

A larded beef steak simmered in stock, finished with crisp lardoons and thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the steak and lard it nicely.

Braise

  1. Place the steak in a stew pan on top of the vegetables and herbs.

  2. Pour in enough stock to come halfway up the meat.

  3. Cover with buttered paper and a lid, then simmer gently in the oven for several hours.

  4. Remove the lid and paper, allowing the lardoons to crisp.

Finish and serve

  1. Reduce the gravy until thick and strain it over the meat.

  2. Garnish with vegetables cut into fancy shapes and cooked in stock.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Larding bacon
Melts slowly during braising, adding fat and flavour to the lean beef.
Beef steak
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Stock
Braising liquid that gives moisture and, once reduced, the body of the gravy.
Carrots
Flavour base that sweetens the braising liquid and the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently under cover. A gentle simmer breaks down the connective tissue in the beef slowly. Boiling hard toughens the meat and reduces the liquid too quickly.

“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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