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Sirloin of Beef, Roasted

Roasted sirloin served with optional gravy, vinegar, chopped cucumbers, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Sirloin of Beef, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the sirloin piece properly and secure it on a spit.

  2. Roast it before a hot fire for 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on the size, moistening the meat frequently while roasting.

  3. Serve with its own gravy or a mixture of gravy, vinegar, chopped cucumbers, salt, and pepper in a sauceboat.

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. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Beef + cucumbertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together576 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 beef
Forms the main body of the dish; its size sets the roasting time.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the sliced meat at serving.

The step that matters

Moistening the meat while it roasts. Basting keeps the surface from drying out before the interior is cooked through, helping the meat stay juicy over the long roast in a hot fire.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, 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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