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Beef Roasted in the Oven

A roasted beef prepared with pepper, salt, water, and flour, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Roasted in the Oven

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Roast the beef

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

  2. Place the beef in a baking pan and dust with pepper.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup water to the pan.

  4. Roast in the oven, basting every 10 minutes and turning several times.

  5. Cook for 15 minutes per pound.

  6. Transfer the beef to a hot platter.

  7. Garnish with hot boiled rice, roasted potatoes, or Yorkshire pudding.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour out the liquid from the pan, leaving about 2 tablespoons.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon flour to the pan. Mix until smooth.

  3. Stir in 1 cup hot water. Bring to a boil.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Serve in a gravy boat.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. 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
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that is roasted and served.
Flour
Thickens the pan liquid into a smooth gravy as it heats.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into the pan liquid. Flour clumps if added to hot liquid without being mixed smooth first. Whisking it into the fat and drippings before adding water lets the starch disperse evenly, so the gravy thickens smoothly when it boils.

“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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