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Beef Pricandean

A slow‑cooked beef stew with herbs, white wine, stock, celery, shallots, carrot, and turnip, finished by crisping the meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef Pricandean

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Lard the meat on the upper side.

  2. Mix together the ground cloves, mace, and black pepper, then sprinkle the mixture over the meat.

Braise

  1. Place the meat in a stewpan on a bed of chopped celery, shallots, carrot, and turnip.

  2. Add the herbs, white wine, and ½ cup of stock, and cook until the liquid is absorbed.

  3. Add 2 cups of stock and simmer in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for two hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain and skim the gravy.

  2. Add salt to taste.

  3. Crisp the meat in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Serve with a vegetable garnish.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and flavourful.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Stock
Provides moisture and body for the gravy as the meat cooks.
Butter
Fat that helps the meat brown and crisp in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Simmering the meat slowly. Gentle, low heat lets connective tissue in the beef break down into tender meat without drying it out or toughening the fibres. Boiling vigorously can make the meat tough.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, pepper, celery, shallot, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, pepper, celery, shallot, carrot, turnip. 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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