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Fillet of Beef with Mushrooms

A fillet of beef baked with vegetables and topped with a mushroom sauce.

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 ↓

Fillet of Beef with Mushrooms

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fillet

  1. Remove the muscular covering from the fillet using a sharp knife.

  2. Lard the fillet with salt pork.

  3. In a baking pan, place the onion, carrot, celery, and cloves. Place the fillet on top, season with pepper, and spread with butter.

  4. Add boiling water and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, basting frequently.

Make the mushroom sauce

  1. Once done, transfer the fillet to a hot dish.

  2. In the baking pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter rolled in flour until browned. Mix with the soup stock and bring to a boil.

  3. Strain into a small saucepan and add the mushrooms. Cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

Serve

  1. Pour the mushroom sauce over the fillet. Serve.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 body of the dish and cooks to a tender, juicy centre.
Salt pork
Larding adds fat that keeps the lean fillet moist during roasting.
Butter
Enriches the fillet's surface and, with flour, thickens the sauce and adds browned flavour.
Soup stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries its savoury flavour.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Basting the fillet during baking. Frequent basting spreads the fat and pan juices over the surface, keeping the lean meat moist and helping it brown evenly as it roasts.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, butter. 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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