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Fillet of Beef with Shrimps

A dish of grilled beef fillet pieces served with shrimp, rice, and a tomato-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef with Shrimps

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the fillet of beef into neat square pieces of medium thickness.

  2. Brush the pieces with oiled butter and sprinkle with black pepper and cayenne.

  3. Grill the beef over a clear fire until cooked to your liking.

Make the rice border

  1. Boil rice in weak stock until tender and the liquid is absorbed.

  2. Season the rice with salt and pepper, then add a piece of butter and mold it into a smooth border on a hot dish.

Make the shrimp sauce and serve

  1. Prepare half a pint of thick brown sauce, flavor it with tomato ketchup, lemon juice, and carmine.

  2. In a small saucepan, heat half of the sauce and stir in the pickled shrimps until hot.

  3. Place about a teaspoonful of the sauce and shrimps in the middle of each fillet and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  4. Fill the center of the rice border with fried potatoes and pour the remaining sauce around the dish.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. 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

Fillet of beef
Provides the main meat, cooked by grilling until tender and browned on the outside.
Rice
Forms a starchy border that holds its shape and soaks up the savory flavor of the dish.
Thick brown sauce
Adds a rich, glossy moisture that binds the shrimp and coats the beef.
Pickled shrimps
Add a sharp, briny flavor that contrasts with the rich beef and sauce.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and tang to the sauce, deepening its flavor.

The step that matters

Grilling the beef to the right doneness. Fillet is lean and cooks quickly, so it can turn dry or tough if overcooked. Grilling over a clear, hot fire sears the surface, browning it while keeping the interior juicy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, rice, sauce, tomato, ketchup):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Mangofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, rice, sauce, tomato, ketchup. 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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