Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the meat
Trim the backbone close and cut the ribs from the flank part.
Roll the flank end toward the backbone and secure it with twine.
Sponge the meat with a wet cloth; rub with pepper and salt, then dredge with flour.
Place the meat on a rack in a roasting pan, serving-side down.
Roast
Roast in a hot oven (400°F/200°C), turning after an hour.
Baste every 15 minutes and add water to cover the bottom of the pan once browned.
After cooking, place the meat in a warm place without covering it.
Make the gravy
Pour off the fat and add hot water to the pan sediment.
Scrape the glaze from the pan, bring to a boil, and thicken with a mixture of flour and cold water.
Season with salt and pepper, then strain into a hot dish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sirloin tip
- Forms the main body of meat that is roasted and sliced for serving.
- Flour
- Dredged on the meat to help it brown, and used to thicken the pan gravy.
The step that matters
Roast in a hot oven, turning and basting. Turning and basting at intervals keeps the surface from drying and scorching while it browns evenly. Covering the roast would trap steam and soften that browned crust.
“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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