Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓
Larded Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the meat
Trim the top of the cold roast smoothly and make perpendicular incisions.
Insert lardoons of fat salt pork into the incisions, placing them closely together.
Roast
In a bowl, combine the fat from the cold gravy, minced onion, catsup, and boiling water.
Lay the meat in a dripping pan and pour the gravy mixture over it.
Invert another pan over the meat and cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about an hour.
Turn the meat once and baste it six times with the gravy.
Remove the meat from the oven.
Make the gravy and serve
Strain the gravy.
Thicken the gravy with browned flour.
Boil the gravy.
Serve in a sauce boat.
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.
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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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
- Cold roast beef
- Is the main body of the dish, cooked gently in the covered pan.
- Fat salt pork (lardoons)
- Adds fat and savoury flavour throughout the meat as it melts during roasting.
- Fat from cold gravy
- Carries flavour and moisture into the pan for basting the meat.
- Browned flour (for thickening)
- Thickens the strained gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
The step that matters
Turning and basting the meat. Basting with the gravy keeps the surface moist and prevents the lean beef from drying out during the long roast. Turning the meat once helps it cook evenly on both sides.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, flour):
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
- Chivefits about as well
- Turnipfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, flour. 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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