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Remnant of Roast Beef

A casserole of thin roast beef slices layered with potatoes, flour, pepper, salt, gravy, and butter, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Remnant of Roast Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

  1. Layer thin slices of beef in a deep dish and sprinkle with flour, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Add a layer of raw potatoes, also sprinkled with flour, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Cover with gravy or stock and scatter small pieces of butter on top.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours, covering with a plate for the last hour.

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 + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Protein that firms and browns as it cooks, giving the casserole its meaty flavor.
Raw potatoes
Starch that softens during baking and absorbs cooking liquid, adding body to the dish.
Flour
Starch that coats the beef and potatoes and helps thicken the juices into a sauce.
Butter
Fat that adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Gravy or stock
Liquid that moistens the layers and carries heat through to cook the beef and potatoes.

The step that matters

Covering for the last hour. Covering with a plate traps steam around the layers, keeping the beef and potatoes moist and tender while the dish finishes cooking. Skipping the cover can leave the beef dry and the potatoes unevenly cooked.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, pepper, butter):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, pepper, butter. 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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