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Fillet of Beef

A fillet of beef baked in a paper bag with optional garnishing and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fillet into two or three pieces horizontally and trim the corners to make each piece round.

  2. Season the fillet with salt and pepper.

  3. Butter a paper bag and the fillet of beef.

Bake

  1. Add the garnishing around the fillet.

  2. Pour 1 to 2 tablespoons of sauce over the garnishing if desired.

  3. Place the bag on a grid in a preheated oven.

  4. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef fillet
Forms the main protein; its thickness and trimming set how evenly it cooks in the bag.
Butter
Greases the bag and fillet so the meat does not stick and gains a little richness on the surface.
Garnishing
Releases moisture and flavor into the bag as it steams alongside the beef.

The step that matters

Placing the bag in a preheated oven. A fully heated oven gives the bag and beef a steady, hot start so the meat cooks through within the short bake time instead of steaming slowly.

“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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