Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Fresh Roast Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wipe the ribs with a towel soaked in salt water, then dry thoroughly.
Place the ribs in pans and add the sliced onions and carrots.
Dredge the meat liberally with pepper, salt, and flour.
Roast
Place the pans in a 400°F (200°C) oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Baste the meat with 2 quarts of boiling water.
Continue baking for 1.5 hours, ensuring there is plenty of water in the pans for basting.
Make the gravy and serve
When cooked, remove from the oven and stir more flour into the meat juices.
Add 2 more quarts of boiling water and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Carve the meat and serve with the gravy.
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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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,029 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ribs
- Provide the main meat, whose fat and connective tissue enrich the juices as it roasts.
- Flour
- Coats the meat and thickens the pan juices into a gravy.
- Onions
- Flavor the pan juices and gravy as they soften and release their sugars.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and aroma to the pan juices used for the gravy.
The step that matters
Keeping plenty of water in the pans for basting. Roasting dries meat and scorches the pan. Enough liquid in the pans keeps the meat moist and prevents the juices from burning before they become gravy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, pepper, flour):
- Parsnipfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, pepper, 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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