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Small Ribs of Beef, a LA Mode

Braised small beef ribs simmered in sherry or Madeira and brandy, finished with a glaze and served with glazed carrots, turnips, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Small Ribs of Beef, a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the beef

  1. Prepare the ribs of beef for braising.

  2. Moisten the ribs with sherry or Madeira and brandy.

  3. Simmer the pan on the stove for about 15 minutes.

  4. Add the consomme, cover with buttered paper and lid, and simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. When done, drain and trim the beef.

  2. Place the beef in a pan with a little of its own liquor and dry in the oven for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Glaze the beef, or if already glazed, proceed to dish it up.

  4. Garnish the dish with glazed carrots, turnips, and onions.

  5. Serve with the braising essence reduced to half-glaze consistency.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

Ribs of beef
The main cut; slow braising breaks down connective tissue to make it tender.
Sherry or madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the braising liquid.
Consomme
Provides the savoury liquid that cooks the beef and becomes the braising essence.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue slowly break down into gelatin, making the beef tender and moist. A hard boil toughens the meat and can dry out the liquid too fast.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sherry, brandy, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sherry, brandy, 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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