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Braised Beef

A braised beef dish with cubed carrots, turnip, celery, onion, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Braised Beef

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 ↓

Braised Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the meat by searing it as you would for a pot roast.

  2. Place the seared meat on a bed of cubed vegetables in a baking pan.

  3. Add 1 cup of boiling water.

Braise and finish

  1. Cover tightly and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven until tender.

  2. Season the meat when it is partly cooked.

  3. Uncover near the end of cooking to allow browning.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Carrot + celerytop 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. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, moist cooking.
Cubed carrots
Add sweetness and body, and sit under the meat to flavour the cooking liquid.
Cubed turnip
Adds earthy flavour and firm texture as it softens in the braising liquid.
Cubed celery
Contributes aromatic flavour to the braising liquid and softened vegetables.
Cubed onion
Releases sweetness and savoury depth as it cooks in the pan.

The step that matters

Cover tightly while braising. A tight cover traps steam so the meat cooks in moist heat and breaks down into tenderness. If the lid leaks, the liquid evaporates and the meat can dry out before it becomes tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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

More braised beef recipes

Roll 13Tongue 13Fillet 11Fillet with Madeira Sauce 6Fillets 5Ribs 5 See all 61 →

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