Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the roast
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Wipe the roast thoroughly with a clean, wet towel.
Place the roast in a dripping pan.
Baste the roast well with butter or suet fat.
Roast
Roast the roast in the oven.
Baste the roast frequently with its own drippings.
When the roast is partly done, season it with salt and pepper.
Dredge the roast with sifted flour.
Roast for about 2 hours for a medium doneness, or 1.5 hours for rare.
Make the sauce and serve
Remove the roast to a heated dish to keep warm.
Skim the fat from the drippings.
Add 1 tablespoon of sifted flour to the drippings.
Add a little pepper to the drippings.
Add 1 cup of boiling water to the drippings.
Boil the sauce once.
Serve the roast with the sauce.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Roast beef (rib or loin)
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked slowly so it stays moist and tender.
- Butter or suet fat
- Basting fat that carries heat over the surface, helping it brown and stay moist.
- Sifted flour
- Dredged over the roast to help form a browned crust and thickens the drippings into sauce.
The step that matters
Roasting time by doneness. Roasting time depends on the cut's size and desired doneness, so overcooking dries the meat. Checking doneness and resting the roast helps the juices stay in the meat.
“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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