Name: To Cook a Fillet of Beef
Ingredients: 1 fillet of beef; strips of larding pork; several pieces of salt pork; 1 onion, sliced; 1 turnip, sliced; 1 carrot, sliced; a few pieces of celery, sliced; 1 cup brown stock; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; pepper to taste; a sprig or two of parsley; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 teaspoon kitchen bouquet; ½ can mushrooms

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of beef: Forms the main meat and carries most of the flavour and texture of the dish.
Flour: Thickens the gravy when cooked with melted butter into a smooth roux.
Butter: Adds richness and carries flour to form the base for thickening the gravy.
Brown stock: Provides the liquid base and savoury flavour for the gravy.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savoury flavour that moistens the fillet and vegetables as they roast.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the juices that form the gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and flour into the gravy until thick and smooth. Flour must be cooked smoothly into melted butter first; adding liquid too fast or unevenly causes lumps, and the starch thickens properly only as the mixture heats and stirs together.

Swap the onion

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

Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

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

To Cook a Fillet of Beef