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Beef, a LA Mode

A slow‑roasted beef round with salt pork, spices, and a gravy thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef, a LA Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Make several incisions in the beef and insert strips of salt pork.

  2. Season the meat with salt, pepper, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg, rubbing the mixture into the meat.

Roast

  1. Place the roast in a pan with 1 pint of hot water and roast slowly for at least 2.5 hours, basting frequently and adding water as needed.

  2. If desired, add ½ pint of sherry wine to the gravy when the meat is nearly done.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once cooked, remove the roast and thicken the remaining gravy with 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with cold water.

  2. Boil the gravy for five minutes and serve in a gravy bowl.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef round roast
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked slowly until tender.
Salt pork
Strips inserted into the beef add fat and moisture as they melt during roasting.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy when stirred in near the end.
Flour
Thickens the drippings into a gravy as it is mixed with cold water and heated.

The step that matters

Roast slowly and baste frequently. Long, gentle heat lets connective tissue in the round roast break down so the meat stays tender, while basting keeps the surface moist and prevents it from drying out.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, pepper, clove, allspice, nutmeg, sherry):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Winter savoryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, pepper, clove, allspice, nutmeg, sherry. 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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