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Cajun Roast Beef

"Not being from the Gulf Coast but living here now, I love the Cajun Roast Beef you can get in the delis right alongside the regular. Distinctively garlicky, I wanted to try roasting it in my own kitchen but found few recipes. Here's my version. It's not spicy, but it has the garlic and thyme that meld to make the savory, regional flavor. We like to serve the beef on toasted rolls with garlic mayonnaise."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 18,971 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep15 min
Cook8 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. In a small bowl, mix the minced garlic, prepared horseradish, hot pepper sauce, dried thyme, salt, ground black pepper, Cajun seasoning, olive oil and malt vinegar into a thick paste.

  2. Pat the eye of round roast dry, rub the paste all over it, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

  3. Place the roast in a slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours (480 minutes), until very tender.

  4. Check the thickest part of the roast with a meat thermometer; it must reach at least 145°F (63°C).

  5. Transfer the roast to a cutting board, rest it for 3 minutes, then slice thinly against the grain and serve.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,641 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Garlic + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, pepper, sauce, thyme, olive, malt, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, pepper, sauce, thyme, olive, malt, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).