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Beef, Fillet Of, Braised

A braised beef fillet cooked with ham, gravy, vegetables, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef, Fillet Of, Braised

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roll the fillet tightly to bring the fat into the center.

  2. In a braising pan, place the ham and gravy.

  3. Add the rolled fillet on top.

  4. Cover the meat with chopped carrots, celery, onions, chili, gherkin, herbs, mace, allspice, and salt.

Braise and finish

  1. Simmer until the meat is tender.

  2. Brown the meat over a fire or with a salamander.

  3. Skim and season the sauce, then serve with vegetables and sauce on the same dish.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

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

  3. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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 meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering in liquid.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the braising liquid and the sauce.
Gravy
Provides liquid and body for the braise, forming the base of the sauce.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavor to the braising liquid.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften and flavor the sauce.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer until the meat is tender. Gentle simmering lets connective tissue break down slowly, making the fillet tender. Boiling hard toughens muscle fibers and can dry the meat, so keep the liquid at a low, gentle simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, carrot, celery, onion, allspice):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, carrot, celery, onion, allspice. 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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