Name: Roast Beef.— to Eat Like Roast Hare
Ingredients: 4 pounds fillet of beef; 1 glass port wine; 1 glass vinegar; rich forcemeat; 1 glass wine and vinegar for basting; red currant jelly

Why it works: Port wine and red currant work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Roast Beef.— to Eat Like Roast Hare

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Marinate

Place the fillet of beef in an earthenware dish.
Pour port wine and vinegar over the beef and let it marinate for a few days.

Roast and serve

Transfer the beef to a baking dish and cover it with rich forcemeat.
Roast in the oven at 400°F (200°C), basting with a mixture of wine and vinegar, for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Serve with gravy and red currant jelly.

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.

Port wine + red curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Port wine + winetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together128 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together598 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,493 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Beef + port winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together626 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 body of the dish, providing the meat that is roasted and served.
Port wine: Adds acidity and sweetness to the marinade, helping to flavour and soften the beef.
Vinegar: Adds acidity to the marinade, which can help tenderise the meat and sharpen flavour.
Red currant jelly: Adds sweetness and tartness to balance the rich, savoury beef when served.

The step that matters

Roast in the oven at 400°F (200°C), basting with a mixture of wine and vinegar. Basting keeps the surface moist while the beef roasts at high heat, helping prevent drying and encouraging an even brown crust. Cooking too long dries out the lean fillet, so timing matters.