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Braised Beef, or Beef En Daube

A slow-cooked beef dish braised with stewed tomatoes and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,448 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Braised Beef, or Beef En Daube

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and sear

  1. Tie the beef neatly and sear it in a hot pan.

Braise

  1. Add the vegetables, seasonings, and stewed tomatoes.

  2. Cover and braise in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 hours for 8 lbs or 6 hours for 10 lbs.

  3. Ensure it cooks slowly throughout the process.

Serve

  1. Serve with vegetables for a family dinner or without them if preferred.

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. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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

Cross-rib beef
Collagen-rich connective tissue breaks down during slow braising, making the meat tender and moist.
Stewed tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that flavour the braising sauce and help tenderise the meat.

The step that matters

Keep the braise slow and low. Collagen in tough cuts only converts to gelatin at low, steady heat. A hot or fast braise tightens the muscle fibres and leaves the meat dry and chewy.

“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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