Why it works: Beef and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Braised Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Braise the beef
Place the brisket of beef in a broad-bottomed pot over the fire.
After 10 minutes, turn the beef.
Repeat the turning after another 10 minutes.
Pour in 2 cups of boiling water.
Cover the pot tightly.
Cook slowly for 1 hour before turning the meat.
If the meat weighs 7 or 8 pounds, cook for an additional hour with the lid on.
Glaze and brown
Dust the beef with flour.
Baste the beef with gravy.
Brown the beef in the oven for 5–6 minutes before serving.
Make the gravy
Skim the gravy.
Season the gravy.
Thicken the gravy with browned flour.
Serve the gravy in a boat.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brisket of beef
- Long, slow cooking softens its connective tissue, making the meat tender.
- Boiling water
- Forms the braising liquid that keeps the meat moist during cooking.
- Flour
- Browns on the surface and later thickens the gravy.
- Gravy
- Moistens and flavors the beef as it is basted.
The step that matters
Cook slowly with the lid on tightly. Low, steady heat in a tightly covered pot keeps moisture in the pot and gives the tough collagen in the brisket time to break down. Lifting the lid or rushing the heat dries the meat and leaves it chewy.
“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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