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French Beef a LA Mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with butter, flour, herbs, carrots, onions, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Beef a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Skewer the beef firmly into a good shape.

Brown and build the gravy

  1. In a thick saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook until it turns a fine amber color.

  3. Add the beef and brown it on both sides, ensuring it doesn't stick.

  4. Gradually pour in the hot water or gravy, allowing each portion to boil before adding the next.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the herbs, carrots, onions, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours, turning the beef halfway through.

  3. When ready to serve, lift the beef onto a hot dish, arrange the vegetables around it, and pour the gravy over, after removing the herbs and skimming off the fat.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef rump
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender through long, gentle simmering.
Butter
Carries the browning of the flour and beef, adding richness to the gravy.
Flour
Cooked to amber in the fat, it thickens the liquid into a gravy.
Hot water or gravy
Forms the cooking liquid that becomes the sauce, dissolving the browned flour and juices.
Onions
Break down during simmering, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.
Carrots
Soften during simmering, adding natural sweetness and color to the dish.

The step that matters

Gradually pour in the hot water or gravy. Adding liquid slowly while the flour is still hot lets it blend smoothly; adding it all at once can leave lumps and an uneven gravy.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, onion, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, onion, pepper. 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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