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Sirloin of Beef, Roasted

Roasted sirloin of beef seasoned with coarse sea salt, horse-radish, butter, and flour, served with a clear gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Sirloin of Beef, Roasted

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the beef on a spit and ensure it is evenly balanced.

  3. Add a little clean dripping to the dripping pan.

  4. Cover the dripping pan with paper to preserve the fat.

Roast and baste

  1. Baste the beef well as soon as it is placed in the oven.

  2. Baste the beef every 15 minutes while roasting.

  3. In the last 30 minutes, remove the paper from the dripping pan.

  4. Stir the fire to make the gravy clear.

  5. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the gravy.

  6. Baste the beef with butter.

  7. Dredge the beef with flour.

  8. Let it roast for a few more minutes until froth rises.

Serve

  1. Remove the beef from the oven and garnish with finely scraped horse-radish.

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. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Beef + horsetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Flour + radishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Sirloin or ribs of beef
The main cut, which provides the roast's meat and rich flavour.
Clean dripping
Fat that bastes the meat and keeps its surface moist as it roasts.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the surface, helping it brown and taste savoury.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps form a crisp, browned crust.

The step that matters

Basting the beef regularly. Basting spreads hot fat over the surface, keeping it moist and promoting even browning. Letting the surface dry out too early can leave it tough and unevenly coloured.

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, horse):

  1. Radishthe original
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, horse. 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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