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Fillet of Beef Larded

A beef fillet larded with salt pork, seasoned, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef Larded

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 beef

  1. Trim off fat and tough skin from the beef.

  2. Skewer the beef into a round shape.

  3. Lard the beef with salt pork.

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

Bake and serve

  1. Place the beef in a very small pan without water.

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

  3. Move to the lower part of the oven for 10 minutes, then to the upper grate.

  4. Serve with mushroom sauce or potato balls.

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

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beef tenderloin or sirloin
Forms the main meat that becomes tender and juicy when cooked gently in the oven.
Salt pork
Inserted through the beef, it adds fat that keeps the lean meat moist and flavourful.
Flour
Dredged onto the surface, it helps form a light crust that browns in the oven.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the outside of the beef and helps draw out flavour and browning at the surface.

The step that matters

Moving the beef within the oven. Shifting from the lower part of the oven to the upper grate changes how heat reaches the meat, so the beef cooks evenly and the surface browns without overcooking. Timing the move matters for an even result.

“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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