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Beef D-LA-vinaigrette

A stew of sliced beef cooked with water, wine, herbs, onion, bay leaf, cloves, and pepper, finished with vinegar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef D-LA-vinaigrette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef slice.

Stew

  1. Stew the sliced beef in water, white wine, sweet herbs, onion, and bay leaf.

  2. Season the stew with pounded cloves and pepper until the liquid is nearly evaporated.

  3. Turn the stew once.

  4. Let the stew cool.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Serve the stew.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Mix the strained gravy with a little vinegar to make the sauce.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Is the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it stews slowly in liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stewing liquid, flavouring the beef and the gravy.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the stew as it reduces.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity to the strained gravy, turning it into a tangy sauce.

The step that matters

Reducing the stew until the liquid is nearly evaporated. If the liquid reduces too far, the beef can dry out and the gravy becomes too concentrated and salty. Stopping at the right point keeps the meat moist and yields a flavourful gravy for the sauce.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, onion, pepper, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, onion, pepper, vinegar, sauce. 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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