Skip to main content
Main

Roasting

A joint of meat roasted with flour, no salt or pepper, until browned on the outside and rare inside.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Meat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,529 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roasting

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

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

  2. Rub a very little flour over the joint of meat.

  3. Do not add salt or pepper before cooking, to retain juices.

  4. Carefully turn the roast once to brown both sides.

  5. Cook until browned on the outside and rare inside.

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. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Joint of meat
Forms the main substance of the dish and browns on its surface as it roasts.
Flour
Forms a thin coating that helps the outside of the meat brown.

The step that matters

Cook until browned on the outside and rare inside. Searing at high oven heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, while the center warms slowly. Meat keeps cooking as it rests, so it should come out before the center reaches the desired doneness.

“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.

More roast meat recipes

Gravy 28Sauce 4 See all 28 →

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMeat CakesMeat Cakes35 recipes