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Tenderloin of Beef

Tenderloin of Beef is a dish of tenderloin pieces served with a vegetable stew and meatballs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Tenderloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tenderloin

  1. Wash the tenderloin and place it in an oven with ½ cup of water.

  2. Chop the potatoes, carrots, turnips, and celery, then add them to the meat.

  3. Let the mixture simmer, then add 1 teaspoon of pounded allspice.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to enrich the gravy, skimming off excess grease if necessary.

Make the balls

  1. Boil a lean piece of beef until done, then chop finely and season with onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Form the mixture into small balls, wet with eggs, and roll in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the balls until light brown and serve them around the tenderloin, pouring the rich gravy over everything.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Tenderloin of beef
Forms the main roast, providing the meat that the gravy and side dishes accompany.
Eggs
Act as a binder that helps breadcrumbs adhere to the meatballs.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy, giving it a smoother mouthfeel.
Irish potatoes
Add starch that thickens the gravy as they cook down with the meat.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the gravy as they soften.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until light brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the breadcrumb coating through Maillard reactions while the egg sets it. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and soggy, and too much burns it before the centre is hot.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, carrot, turnip, celery, butter, onion. 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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