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Tenderloin of Beef

Tenderloin of beef cooked with vegetables, served with meatballs in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 gravy

  1. Wash the tenderloin.

  2. Place the tenderloin in an oven with 1 pint of water.

  3. Chop the vegetables.

  4. Add the vegetables to the meat to flavor the gravy.

  5. Let the mixture simmer slowly.

  6. When nearly done, add 1 teaspoon of pounded allspice.

  7. Add 1 tablespoon of butter.

  8. If the gravy is too greasy, skim off some melted fat.

Make the meatballs

  1. Boil the lean piece of beef until fully cooked.

  2. Chop the boiled lean beef finely.

  3. Mix the chopped beef with a small amount of onion, salt, and pepper.

  4. Form the mixture into small balls.

  5. Wet the balls with eggs.

  6. Roll the balls in crumbs.

  7. Fry the balls until light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve the tenderloin surrounded by the fried balls.

  2. Pour 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

Beef tenderloin
Forms the main roast; slow cooking in liquid keeps it moist and tender.
Eggs
Act as a binding wash that helps the crumb coating adhere to the meatballs.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the gravy, giving it smoothness and flavor.
Irish potatoes
Break down during simmering, adding body and thickening to the gravy.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the gravy as they soften.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the meatballs until light brown. Frying browns the crumb coating through the Maillard reaction, creating flavor and color; too little heat leaves them pale and greasy, while too much can scorch the crumbs before the centers are heated through.

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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