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Roast Tenderloin of Beef

A roasted beef tenderloin served with a butter and flour-based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Tenderloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Roast the beef

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the tenderloin in a roasting pan and pour boiling water over it.

  3. Roast the tenderloin carefully, basting often with its own juices.

  4. When the tenderloin is nearly done, dredge it with flour and baste once with butter.

  5. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes per pound to achieve rare and juicy meat.

  6. Remove excess fat from the pan.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Thicken the remaining gravy with browned flour, pepper, and salt.

  2. Bring the gravy to a boil and serve it in a gravy boat with made mustard.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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; its fat and connective tissue are what keep the meat moist and tender.
Flour
Dredged on the surface and browned to help thicken the pan gravy.
Butter
Basted over the meat to add fat, moisture and browning to the crust.
Boiling water
Poured into the roasting pan to create liquid for the pan juices and gravy.

The step that matters

Continue cooking for about 10 minutes per pound. Tenderloin is lean and cooks quickly, so overcooking dries it out. Timing by weight gives a rare, juicy centre, and checking doneness matters more than the clock.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, butter, pepper. 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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