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Fillet of Beef Roasted and Larded

A fillet of beef roasted and larded with fat, seasoned with onions, parsley, lemon juice, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef Roasted and Larded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim excess fat from the fillet and tie it for cooking.

  2. Lard both ends of the fillet, leaving the middle without lard.

  3. Soak the fillet for several days in oil seasoned with chopped onions, parsley, lemon juice, and pepper.

  4. Truss the fillet in the shape of an 'S' or a round.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the fillet until it has a good color.

  2. Serve with your choice of sauce.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 cut of meat that is roasted and served.
Oil
Carries the seasonings into the fillet during the long soak and keeps the surface moist.
Onions
Add aromatic flavour to the seasoned oil used for soaking.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity to the soaking liquid, brightening the flavour of the beef.

The step that matters

Roast the fillet until it has a good color. Browning from dry heat develops flavour through the Maillard reaction, while the surface must be watched so the interior does not overcook. Lardons and trussing help the fillet cook evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, lemon, pepper. 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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