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Beef, Stewed Shin of

A stew of beef shin with celery, onion, carrots, turnips, and mushrooms, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef, Stewed Shin of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the bone into 4 or 5 pieces and cover with hot water.

  2. Bring to a boil and remove any scum that rises to the surface.

  3. Add the celery, onion, herbs, allspice, black pepper, and seasoning.

  4. Simmer gently until the meat is tender.

Cook the vegetables

  1. Peel the vegetables, cut them into desired shapes, and boil with the onions until tender.

  2. Remove the beef and keep it warm on a dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Thicken the cooking liquid with butter and flour to make gravy, stirring until it boils.

  2. Strain and skim the gravy, then return it to the pot.

  3. Add the seasoning, port wine, and mushroom ketchup, and bring to a boil.

  4. Pour the gravy over the beef before serving.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Gives rich flavour and gelatinous body to the stock as it simmers slowly.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the cooking liquid into gravy, and butter adds richness and smooth mouthfeel.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the gravy.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity depth that rounds out the gravy.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the stew.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after the boil. Foam rising during the first boil carries impurities that would cloud the stock and taste bitter, so removing it keeps the broth clean and clear.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, onion, pepper, carrot, turnip, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, onion, pepper, carrot, turnip, butter. 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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