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Beef A-LA-mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with herbs, bacon, and a rich gravy.

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

Prepare the beef

  1. Combine cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, and assorted herbs with bacon, pepper, and salt.

  2. Insert a large pin through the beef and place it in a pot.

Stew

  1. Cover the beef with water and add onions, garlic, bay leaves, mushrooms, porter, and red wine.

  2. Cover the pot and stew for 6 hours (8 hours for a large piece).

Make the gravy and serve

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

  2. Skim the fat from the gravy, strain it through a sieve, and add mushrooms back to the gravy.

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

  4. Serve the beef with gravy poured over it, or slice it and pour the gravy on top.

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, becoming tender through long, slow stewing.
Porter or ale
Adds deep, malty flavor to the liquid that cooks and colors the gravy.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the stewing liquid, helping flavor the gravy.
Onions
Break down during stewing to add sweetness and body to the gravy.
Bacon
Contributes fat and savory flavor that seasons the beef as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stew for the full time. Beef from a tough cut needs long, slow, moist cooking so its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin. Stopping early leaves the meat chewy, so a large piece needs the longer time.

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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