Name: Braised Beef in Red Wine
Prep time: 40 min
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 2kg boned shin or feather blade of beef , cut into 6 x 2.5cm thick steaks (ask your butcher to do this); 3 tbsp plain flour; 3 tbsp clarified butter (see tip, below); 1½l (2 bottles) full-bodied red wine; 3 medium carrots , cut into 2cm thick slices; 1 celery stick, cut into 1cm thick slices; 30 baby onions or shallots, peeled but left whole; 9 garlic cloves , peeled but left whole; 2 tsp black peppercorns , crushed; 1 bouquet garni (made with a few parsley stalks, 4 bay leaves and 6 thyme sprigs, tied together with string); 50g unsalted butter; 300g button mushrooms , trimmed; 150g Jambugo ham , finely sliced, or any smoked bacon such as pancetta or lardons, freshly fried; 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Swap the garlic

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

Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Rosemaryfits about as well
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, butter, red wine, carrot, celery, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1

Braised Beef in Red Wine