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Roast Beef and Potatoes

Roast beef cooked in boiling water with pepper, salt, flour, and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Roast Beef and Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the roast with pepper, salt, and flour.

  2. Place the roast in a pan with boiling water.

Roast and serve

  1. About 30 minutes before the meat is done, add the peeled potatoes to the pan.

  2. Turn the potatoes after 15 minutes.

  3. Serve the roast and potatoes on a hot platter.

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 + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Roast of beef
Provides the main cut of meat, which cooks slowly in the pan's moisture and steam.
Flour
Coats the outside of the roast, helping it brown and thicken the pan juices.
Peeled potatoes
Absorb the meat juices and turn tender and browned as they roast beside the beef.

The step that matters

Adding the potatoes 30 minutes before the meat is done. Potatoes need a long time to soften through, while the beef can overcook. Timing them to finish with the roast keeps both tender and ready together.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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