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Tenderloin of Beef

Tenderloin of Beef is a stew of tenderloin and vegetables, served with fried beef balls and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Tenderloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tenderloin

  1. Extract the whole tenderloin before cutting out the hind quarter.

  2. Wash the tenderloin and place it in an oven with 1 pint of water.

  3. Chop the potatoes, carrots, turnips, and celery, then add them to the meat.

Simmer and enrich the gravy

  1. Let the mixture simmer slowly, adding 1 teaspoon of allspice near the end.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to enrich the gravy, skimming off excess fat if necessary.

Make the beef balls and serve

  1. Boil the lean piece of beef until fully cooked, then chop finely.

  2. Flavor the chopped beef with onion, salt, and pepper, then form into small balls.

  3. Wet the balls with egg, roll in breadcrumbs, and fry until light brown.

  4. Serve the tenderloin with the fried beef balls around it, pouring the rich gravy over the dish.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef tenderloin
Forms the main roasted or braised cut that carries the dish.
Potatoes
Thicken the gravy as they break down and add starchy body.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the simmering liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy.
Egg
Acts as a binder so breadcrumbs adhere to the beef balls.

The step that matters

Skimming excess fat from the gravy. Fat from the beef and butter can make the gravy greasy and cloudy. Skimming the surface as it simmers keeps the gravy smooth and rich-tasting rather than oily.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, onion. 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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