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Stewed Sirloin of Beef

A hearty stew of sirloin beef wrapped in bacon, simmered with herbs, carrots, and leeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bones from the beef and reserve them.

  2. Spread the meat flat and cover the inside with bacon slices. Season with salt, mace or nutmeg, and pepper or cayenne.

  3. Roll and bind the meat tightly, then place it in a stewpan.

  4. Add the reserved bones and enough beef broth to nearly cover the meat. If broth is unavailable, place slices of ham or bacon under the beef and add cold water.

Stew

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum, then add the herbs, carrots, leeks or onion.

  2. After an hour, add mace and peppercorns.

  3. Stew gently for 4-5 hours, longer if the joint is large.

  4. Adjust salt before adding vegetables, and reduce the cooking liquid to make gravy.

Serve

  1. Serve with Espagnole, sauce piquante, or brown caper 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. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin of beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during long, gentle stewing.
Striped bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that moistens the lean beef as it cooks.
Beef broth
Provides the cooking liquid that flavors the meat and later becomes the gravy.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid.
Leeks or onion
Add aromatic depth to the stewing liquid and the final gravy.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 4-5 hours. A gentle simmer breaks down connective tissue slowly and keeps the meat tender and moist. A hard boil toughens muscle fibers and makes the meat dry and stringy.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, veal, carrot, leek, butter. 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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