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Fillet of Beef

A fillet of beef baked with pork slices, vegetables, and a mushroom gravy.

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 ↓

Fillet of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fillet

  1. Have your butcher remove the fat veins and trim the fillet into shape.

  2. Place the fillet in a pan on several slices of pork.

  3. Cover the top of the fillet with thin strips of pork.

  4. Dredge the pork strips with flour, salt, and pepper.

  5. Add the sliced carrot, turnip, onion, and celery around the fillet.

Roast

  1. Cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. After 10 minutes, pour 1 cup of stock into the pan.

  3. Baste frequently.

  4. Serve the fillet rare.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to the melted butter.

  3. Slowly stir the strained gravy from the pan into the saucepan.

  4. Skim off the fat.

  5. Add the drained mushrooms to the saucepan.

  6. Cook for 10 minutes.

  7. Pour the gravy around the fillet.

  8. Add hot water if more gravy is needed.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef fillet
Is the main cut, cooked gently so it stays tender and rare inside.
Pork slices
Wrap the fillet, adding fat and moisture as they cook and baste the meat.
Flour
Dusts the pork strips and thickens the gravy so it coats the meat.
Butter
Forms a roux with flour, giving the gravy body and a rich flavor.
Stock
Adds liquid to the pan, building the gravy's savory flavor.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and texture to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Serve the fillet rare. Beef fillet is lean and overcooks quickly, becoming dry and firm past medium. Pulling it at the right internal temperature keeps it juicy and tender, so resting briefly before slicing helps the juices settle.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, flour, pepper, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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