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Beef a LA Mode

A slow-roasted beef with cloves, allspice, cinnamon, carrots, turnips, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Beef a LA Mode

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 the beef

  1. Bind the larded beef with a piece of muslin to keep it in place.

  2. Mix cloves, allspice, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.

  3. Boil the carrots and turnips slightly, cut them into strips, and place them in the beef along with the garlic.

Braise

  1. Place the beef in a covered baking pan, sprinkle with flour, and add ½ cup of water.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 3 hours.

  3. Chop the remaining carrots and bits of pork finely and place on top of the beef.

  4. Add whole carrots and onions to the pan and cook for 1 more hour.

  5. Baste with sherry during the last 30 minutes.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. For the gravy, boil 1 turnip and 1 carrot with ½ cup of water until thickened, then add ½ cup of sherry just before serving.

  2. Serve the beef on a platter, topped with browned fat and carrots, and the whole vegetables.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Round of beef
Long slow braising turns the tough cut tender and tender enough to slice.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it braises.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body, and soften into the braising liquid.
Turnips
Add mild earthy flavour and body, softening during cooking.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the basting liquid and gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the braise covered and low. Gentle, covered heat at 300°F lets the connective tissue in the tough round break down slowly. Higher heat or an uncovered pan dries and toughens the meat before it becomes tender.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, carrot, turnip):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, carrot, turnip. 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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