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Baked Beef

A slow‑baked beef seasoned with herbs, wine, vinegar, onions, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Baked Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the beef and chop the herbs together.

  2. Rub the beef with the herb mixture and place it in an earthen pan.

  3. Add port wine, vinegar, onions, bay leaves, and mushrooms.

  4. Let it marinate for 24 hours.

Bake and serve

  1. Add enough water to cover the beef and bake in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) with paper over the pan.

  2. Once baked, remove the meat, strain the gravy, skim off the fat, and serve with the beef.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long, slow braise.
Port wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the marinade and gravy.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the meat and brighten the flavour.
Mushrooms
Add savoury, umami flavour to the marinade and gravy.

The step that matters

Marinating for 24 hours. The acidic marinade needs the full time to penetrate and soften the beef. Skipping or shortening it leaves the meat firmer and less flavourful.

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, pepper, port wine, vinegar):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, pepper, port wine, vinegar. 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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