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Beef a-LA-Mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew flavored with cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, sweet herbs, bacon, onions, garlic, bay leaves, mushrooms, beer, and vinegar.

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 pot

  1. In a pot, combine the beef, cloves, mace, allspice, parsley, sweet herbs, and bacon.

  2. Cover the beef with water and add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, mushrooms, beer, salt, cayenne pepper, and vinegar.

  3. Stir in the bread crumbs and cover the pot tightly.

Stew

  1. Stew for 6 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the beef.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the beef and keep it warm in a deep dish.

  2. Strain the gravy through a sieve, discarding the mushrooms, and skim off the fat.

  3. Return the gravy to the pot, bring to a boil, and season to taste.

  4. Pour the gravy over the beef and serve hot.

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. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Long stewing breaks down the connective tissue, making the meat tender and moist.
Bacon
Fat from the bacon adds richness and savory flavor to the stew and gravy.
Onions
Cooking down releases sweetness and builds body into the gravy.
Bread crumbs
Crumbs soak up liquid and help thicken the gravy as it stews.
Beer
Adds malty depth and bitterness that balances the rich meat and fat.
Vinegar
A small amount adds acidity that brightens the flavors of the rich stew.

The step that matters

Skimming the gravy after straining. Fat rendered from the beef and bacon rises to the surface and can make the gravy greasy and heavy if not removed before reheating and seasoning.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, allspice, parsley, onion, garlic, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, allspice, parsley, onion, garlic, mushroom. 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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