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Fillet of Beef

A fillet of beef wrapped in pork, baked with sliced vegetables, served rare with a mushroom 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 ↓

Fillet of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fillet

  1. Have your butcher remove the fat veins and trim the fillet into shape.

  2. Place the fillet in a pan on several slices of pork.

  3. Cover the top with thin strips of pork.

  4. Dredge the fillet with flour, salt, and pepper.

  5. Alternatively, cover with buttered, seasoned crumbs.

  6. Surround the fillet with sliced carrot, turnip, onion, and celery.

Roast

  1. Cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. After 10 minutes, pour 1 cup of stock into the pan and baste frequently.

  3. The fillet should be served rare.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour.

  2. Slowly stir in the strained gravy from the pan, skimming off the fat.

  3. Add ½ can of drained mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes.

  4. Pour the sauce around the fillet.

  5. If needed, add a little hot water to adjust the gravy consistency.

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

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

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 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 meat, cooked rare so it stays tender and juicy.
Pork slices
Laid under and over the fillet, they add fat and moisture as they cook.
Stock
Poured into the pan and basted over the meat, keeping the surface moist and building the pan gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy with the butter, giving it body.
Butter
Melted with flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce, and adds richness.

The step that matters

Serving the fillet rare. Beef fillet is lean and overcooks quickly, so pulling it at the right point keeps the centre pink and tender. Past that point the proteins tighten and the meat turns dry.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, flour, pepper, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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