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Stewed Sirloin of Beef

A slow‑cooked sirloin of beef stewed with bacon, leeks, onion, cloves, mace, peppercorns, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,326 recipes. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Stewed Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the bones from the sirloin and lay it flat on a table.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cover the inside with bacon slices.

  3. Roll and bind the meat tightly.

Stew

  1. Place it in a thick iron saucepan and add the bones and enough beef broth to nearly cover the joint.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add a bunch of savory herbs, leeks, and the onion with cloves.

  4. After an hour, add mace and peppercorns.

  5. Stew gently for 4 to 5 hours or longer.

Serve

  1. Serve with 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. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Leek + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together579 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  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
Forms the main joint that becomes tender and flavourful during long, gentle stewing.
Thin slices of striped bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that melts into the meat and broth as it cooks.
Beef broth
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the meat and becomes the base of the flavour.
Leeks
Contribute mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Skimming off any scum after the boil. Scum rising from the meat and bones can cloud the broth and taste bitter or impure, so skimming keeps the stew clean and clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, leek, onion, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, leek, onion, clove. 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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