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Stewed Beef Si l’Egyptienne

A stewed beef dish with onions, tomato sauce, broth, herbs, garlic, gumbos, and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Stewed Beef Si l’Egyptienne

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Brown the beef in a skillet with butter and onions for about 10 minutes.

  2. Add flour and stir briskly.

  3. Pour in the broth and tomato sauce, then season with salt and pepper.

  4. Add the bouquet and crushed garlic, and let cook for 25 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the beef with cooked gumbos and celery.

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 meat and protein that becomes tender during slow simmering.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a richer sauce as it is stirred in.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they brown with the beef and butter.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps the beef and onions brown in the skillet.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savory depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour. Adding flour to the hot fat and browned pan coats the meat and onions and begins thickening the sauce once liquid goes in. Stirring briskly keeps it smooth and prevents lumps from forming.

Swap the clove

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

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

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