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Beef, Ribs Of. to Roast

Roasted beef ribs seasoned with sea salt and clarified dripping, dusted with flour, served with horseradish sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 743 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beef, Ribs Of. to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Hang the fore-rib for 2-3 days before cooking.

  2. Remove the ends of the ribs.

  3. Trim the fat and skewer it.

  4. Remove the sinew and chine bones.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the joint far from the fire, gradually moving it closer until hot throughout.

  2. Baste freely with clarified dripping at first.

  3. Dust with flour 15 minutes before removing from heat.

  4. Serve with horseradish 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. Flour + horseradishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together743 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Horseradish + saucetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beef + horseradishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beef + saucetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,650 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fore-rib of beef
Provides the main meat, whose fat and connective tissue soften and flavour the roast as it cooks.
Clarified dripping
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a rich, savoury crust on the outside.
Flour
Dusted on near the end, it helps form a crisp, browned crust on the surface.
Horseradish sauce
Provides sharp acidity and pungency that cut through the richness of the beef.

The step that matters

Moving the joint closer to the fire. Starting far from the heat and bringing it closer gradually cooks the beef evenly through without scorching the outside before the centre is hot.

Swap the horseradish

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Horseradishthe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, sauce. 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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