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Spiced Beef

A roast of sirloin seasoned with cloves, allspice, sage, thyme, and served with a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roast

  1. Skewer the sirloin roast firmly in place.

  2. Strew the top with whole cloves, allspice, sage, and thyme.

Make the gravy

  1. Brown the butter in a baking pan.

  2. Work in the flour.

  3. Gradually add the cold water.

  4. Let the mixture boil.

  5. Season to taste.

  6. Add the lemon juice.

  7. Place the roast in the pan with the gravy.

Roast and baste

  1. Do not baste for the first 15 minutes.

  2. Baste frequently.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin roast
Provides the main body of meat that the dish is built around.
Butter
Browns in the pan and adds richness and flavor to the gravy.
Flour
Works into the browned butter to thicken the cold water into gravy.
Cold water
Forms the liquid base of the gravy once it is mixed with the flour and boiled.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the gravy.

The step that matters

Do not baste for the first 15 minutes. Early basting would cool the surface and wash off the seasoning before the outside has set. Waiting lets the crust form so the spices and drippings stick, then frequent basting keeps the surface moist and encourages even browning.

“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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