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Tenderloin of Beef

Tenderloin of beef cooked with vegetables, served with meatballs and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 and place it in an oven with 1 pint of water.

  2. Chop the potatoes, carrots, turnips, and celery, then add them to the meat.

  3. Let the mixture simmer slowly, adding 1 teaspoon of pounded allspice near the end.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to enrich the gravy, skimming off excess grease if necessary.

Make the meatballs

  1. Boil the lean piece of beef until fully cooked, then chop finely and mix with a small amount of onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Form the mixture into small balls, wet them with eggs, and roll in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the meatballs until light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve the tenderloin surrounded by the meatballs and 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 moist and tender when cooked slowly in liquid.
Eggs
Act as a binding wash that helps breadcrumbs adhere to the meatballs.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy, giving it a smoother mouthfeel.
Irish potatoes
Break down during simmering to thicken the gravy and add body.
Celery
Adds savory aroma and flavor to the cooking liquid as it simmers.

The step that matters

Frying the meatballs until light brown. Breadcrumb-coated meatballs brown through Maillard reactions at the surface; frying too briefly leaves them pale and underseasoned, while overcooking dries the interior. Keep heat moderate to brown evenly.

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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