Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Dredge the beef lightly with flour and season with salt and pepper.
Roast
Place the beef in the oven and baste frequently while roasting.
Roast for 15 minutes per pound for rare, longer for well done.
Make the sauce and serve
For the sauce, collect drippings from the pan and add Worcestershire sauce and tomato ketchup.
Thicken the sauce with browned flour and serve in a gravy 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Is the main cut that is roasted, providing the dish's core texture and meaty flavour.
- Flour
- Dredging coats the beef surface, helping it brown and giving the drippings body for the sauce.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savoury, tangy depth to the drippings-based sauce.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce, rounding out its flavour.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the sauce while adding a toasted, nutty flavour.
The step that matters
Roast for 15 minutes per pound for rare, longer for well done.. Meat keeps cooking after it leaves the oven, and the interior temperature rises steadily with time. Checking doneness with a thermometer rather than relying only on the clock helps avoid overcooking the centre.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, pepper, sauce, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, pepper, sauce, ketchup. 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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