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Fillet of Beef with Mushroom Sauce

A fillet of beef roasted with aromatics and served with a mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 with Mushroom Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Roast the fillet

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the larded fillet in a baking pan and add onion, carrot, celery, cloves, and bay leaves.

  3. Season the fillet with pepper and coarse sea salt, then spread it with butter or marrow.

  4. Pour ½ cup soup stock or water into the pan.

  5. Bake for 30 minutes, basting occasionally.

  6. Transfer the fillet to a hot platter.

Make the mushroom sauce

  1. In the pan, add 1 tablespoon butter and brown it.

  2. Mix in 2 tablespoons flour thoroughly.

  3. Add 1 pint soup stock, strain, and heat slowly to boiling, stirring constantly.

  4. Add mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in Worcestershire sauce, Sherry wine, nutmeg, and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce around the fillet and serve immediately.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Fillet of beef
Provides the tender, rich meat that forms the centrepiece of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and browning in the pan, and enriches the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by binding with the butter and stock.
Soup stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds savoury depth.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce while it heats. Flour mixed into butter and stock can form lumps if liquid is added too fast or stirring stops. Constant stirring as it comes to a boil keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, butter, 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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