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A Fricandeau of Beef

A braised beef dish larded with bacon, cooked in broth, wine, herbs, and garlic, then glazed with the reduced sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Fricandeau of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the beef closely with bacon.

  2. Place the beef in a stewpan with broth, white wine, parsley, sweet herbs, garlic, shallots, cloves, salt, and pepper.

Braise

  1. Cook until the meat is tender, then cover it tightly.

Glaze and serve

  1. Skim the sauce, strain it, and boil until reduced to a glaze.

  2. Glaze the larded side of the beef with the sauce and serve on sorrel sauce.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 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

Lean beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and sliceable through slow braising.
Bacon
Lardoons add fat and richness that keep the lean beef moist during cooking.
Broth
Provides the liquid for braising and, once reduced, the savoury body of the glaze.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid and reduced sauce.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid and sauce.

The step that matters

Reducing the sauce to a glaze. Boiling the strained sauce concentrates its gelatin and flavour so it clings to the meat. If it is under-reduced it stays thin and runs off; if over-reduced it turns overly salty and sticky.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, parsley, garlic, shallot, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, parsley, garlic, shallot, 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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