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Macaronied Beef

A beef stew with macaroni, onions, tomatoes, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Macaronied Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Make holes in the beef with a large larding needle and press the macaroni into them.

  2. Season the beef with salt and pepper.

Make the onion base

  1. Melt the butter in a 6‑quart stewpan and add the onions.

  2. Stir over medium heat until the onions are golden brown.

Braise and serve

  1. Add the beef to the pan, drawing the onions aside.

  2. Dredge the beef with flour and spread the fried onions on top.

  3. Add the spices and 1 quart of boiling water.

  4. Cover tightly and simmer slowly for 3 hours.

  5. Add the tomatoes.

  6. Cook for 1 hour longer.

  7. Remove the meat and strain the gravy over it.

  8. Serve hot with macaroni.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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
Provides the main body of the stew, becoming tender through long, slow simmering.
Macaroni
Pressed into the beef, it adds starch and a soft texture to the finished dish.
Butter
Fat that carries the frying of the onions and adds richness to the base.
Onions
Browned in butter, they add sweetness and depth of flavour to the gravy.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the gravy as the stew cooks.
Flour
Dredged onto the beef, it helps thicken the gravy as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stir the onions until golden brown. Browning the onions in butter develops sweet, deep flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale onions give a flat gravy, while over-browned ones turn bitter.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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