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To Roast Beef

A roasted sirloin beef prepared on a spit with salt, butter, flour, and a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 743 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Roast Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the sirloin in cold water and dry it with a clean cloth.

  2. Rub the meat with coarse sea salt.

  3. Cover the fat with white paper tied with thread.

  4. Ensure the spit is clean and dry before use.

Roast

  1. Preheat the fire to bright but not scorching heat.

  2. Place the meat about 10 inches from the fire, then gradually move it closer to the fire.

  3. Baste the meat with clean dripping or lard as soon as it is placed in the roaster, and baste at intervals.

  4. Turn the spit frequently.

  5. About 30 minutes before the roast is done, remove the paper from the fat.

  6. Sprinkle salt over the roast and baste the roast well.

  7. Pour off excess liquid fat from the drippings.

  8. Mix 1 cup of boiling water with ¼ teaspoon of salt, then drizzle the mixture over the browned parts of the meat.

  9. Stir the fire to keep it clear.

  10. Sprinkle salt over the roast and baste the roast with butter.

  11. Dredge the roast with flour.

  12. Wait until froth rises.

Finish and serve

  1. Take the roast up and dish the roast.

  2. Skim the gravy from the roaster and boil the gravy.

  3. Serve the gravy in a boat.

  4. Garnish the roast with scraped horseradish.

  5. Serve the roast with vinegar.

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. Flour + horseradishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together743 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + horseradishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together491 recipes

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

  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 beef
The main cut of meat, which is roasted and carved for serving.
Clean dripping or lard
Fat for basting, adding moisture and helping the surface brown.
Butter
Fat for basting, adding richness and helping the surface brown.
Flour
Dredged over the roast to help form a browned crust and thicken the drippings.

The step that matters

Dredge the roast with flour. Flour on the surface browns and thickens the drippings, so the roast must be basted and dredged at the right time to avoid a pale or lumpy gravy.

Swap the horseradish

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

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