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Tenderloin of Beef

Tenderloin of Beef is a braised beef dish served with meatballs and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Tenderloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tenderloin

  1. Wash the tenderloin well.

  2. Place the tenderloin in an oven with 1 pint of water.

  3. Chop the potatoes, carrots, turnips, and celery. Add them to the meat.

  4. Let the mixture simmer slowly.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon of pounded allspice near the end.

  6. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the gravy.

  7. Skim off excess fat if necessary.

Make the meatballs

  1. Boil the lean piece of beef until fully cooked. Chop it finely.

  2. Mix with a small amount of onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. Form the mixture into small balls.

  4. Wet them with eggs. Roll them in breadcrumbs.

  5. Fry the meatballs until light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve the tenderloin surrounded by the meatballs.

  2. Pour the rich gravy over 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef tenderloin
Forms the main roast, staying tender and juicy as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the gravy, giving it a smoother mouthfeel.
Eggs
Act as a binder so the breadcrumb coating sticks to the meatballs.
Irish potatoes
Starch that thickens the gravy as the vegetables break down during simmering.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the gravy as they soften.

The step that matters

Let the mixture simmer slowly. Gentle, low-heat simmering lets the tough connective tissue in the meat break down gradually, producing tenderness, while a hard boil can toughen the meat and cloud the gravy.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, onion. 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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