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Baked Beef

A slow-cooked beef roast marinated with herbs, vinegar, and port, then baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Baked Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the beef and wash it clean.

  2. Chop the parsley and mix it with thyme, marjoram, savory, basil, allspice, mace, cloves, pepper, and salt.

  3. Rub the beef well with the herb mixture.

Marinate

  1. Place the beef in an earthen pan and add vinegar, red port, onions, bay leaves, and mushrooms.

  2. Let the meat marinate until the next day.

Bake

  1. Add enough water to cover the meat.

  2. Cover the pan tightly.

  3. Bake until tender.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Is the main protein that becomes tender and moist during slow baking.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the meat's surface and fibres.
Red port
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the marinade and the cooking liquid.
Onions
Release moisture and sweetness into the pan, flavouring the braising liquid.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green herbal aroma to the herb rub.

The step that matters

Bake until tender. The pan must be covered tightly so steam keeps the meat moist during long, low cooking. Without a tight seal, liquid evaporates and the beef can dry out before it becomes tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, basil, allspice, clove):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, basil, allspice, clove. 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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