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Sirloin of Beef

A braised sirloin wrapped in bacon, simmered with onions, carrots, herbs, and reduced gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,563 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the sirloin from the joint and trim off all the skin.

  2. Roll the bacon strips in thyme, spices, pepper, and salt.

  3. Lard the sirloin with the bacon strips and tie it with kitchen twine.

Braise

  1. Line a braising pan with bacon slices, then add a layer of beef or veal, onions, bay leaves, carrots, and sweet herbs.

  2. Place the sirloin on top, cover with bacon slices, and add meat trimmings around it.

  3. Pour in the bouillon or gravy and stew gently for 2.5 hours.

Glaze and serve

  1. Remove the sirloin and keep it hot; strain and reduce the gravy by boiling until thick enough to glaze.

  2. Brush the meat with the reduced gravy and serve immediately.

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. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 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

Sirloin of beef
Is the main cut that is larded, braised slowly and served sliced or whole.
Unsmoked bacon
Adds fat and salty flavour as it renders into the meat and the braising liquid.
Onions
Release sweetness and body into the braising liquid as they soften slowly.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the gravy as they cook.
Bouillon or gravy
Provides the liquid that keeps the meat moist and is reduced into a glaze.

The step that matters

Reducing the strained gravy to a glaze. Boiling concentrates the gravy and thickens it as water evaporates. If it is not reduced enough it stays thin and will not cling to the meat, and if it boils too hard it can turn bitter or over-salted.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, thyme, pepper, carrot. 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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