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Stewed Brisket of Beef, with French Beans

A slow‑cooked beef brisket simmered with onions, spices, and French beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Stewed Brisket of Beef, with French Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the brisket

  1. Brown the brisket over a quick fire for 30 minutes, basting well.

Stew

  1. Place the brisket in a stewpan with chopped onions and enough water to reach the top without covering it.

  2. Bring to a boil and skim the surface.

  3. Add pepper, mustard, soy sauce, anchovy sauce, sugar, mushroom ketchup, grated nutmeg, and vinegar.

  4. Simmer gently for 4.5 hours, skimming frequently.

Add beans and serve

  1. Add French beans and a mixture of vinegar and flour.

  2. Continue to simmer for another hour and serve with beef in the center and beans around.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Brisket of beef
Long simmering breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and moist.
Onions
Break down during stewing, adding sweetness and body to the cooking liquid.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury umami flavour to the stewing liquid.
Anchovy sauce
Contributes salty, savoury depth that rounds out the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich stewed flavours and balances the sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the cooking liquid slightly when mixed with vinegar and added to it.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface. Bringing the liquid to a boil releases foam and fat that rise to the surface; skimming them keeps the stew clean-tasting and the sauce clear rather than greasy or cloudy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper, sauce, anchovy, sugar, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, sauce, anchovy, sugar, mushroom. 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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