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Sirloin of Beef En Epigram

A roast sirloin served with a gravy of onions, ketchup, pickled cucumbers, and seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sirloin of Beef En Epigram

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Roast the sirloin of beef and remove it from the spit.

  2. Lift off the skin carefully.

  3. Cut out the lean part of the beef, avoiding the ends and sides.

  4. Cut the meat into pieces about the size of a coin.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. In a saucepan, combine the gravy, chopped onion, ketchup, pepper, salt, sliced cucumbers, and a little butter mixed with flour.

  2. Add the meat to the pan and toss for five minutes.

  3. Place the meat back on the sirloin.

  4. Cover the meat with the skin.

  5. Serve garnished with horseradish.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Beef + horsetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 of beef
Provides the main meat, whose lean cut is cubed and returned to the joint.
Gravy
Supplies liquid and savoury body for the sauce the meat is tossed in.
Butter mixed with flour
Flour thickens the sauce while butter adds richness and smooth texture.
Pickled cucumbers
Adds sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the beef and gravy.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and sweetness as it cooks into the sauce.

The step that matters

Toss the meat in the sauce for five minutes. Brief heating in the thickened sauce warms the beef through without toughening it. Overcooking dries the lean meat and can make the flour-thickened sauce break or turn gluey, so keep the time short and the heat gentle.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

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