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Fillet of Beef Roasted

A roasted beef fillet served with tomato sauce, horseradish, or currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,448 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef Roasted

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

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Lard the fillet if desired, or roast it plain.

Roast

  1. Baste the fillet with fresh butter during cooking.

  2. Roast the fillet for at least 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce and garnish with horseradish, or with currant jelly.

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 + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + horseradishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together415 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beef + horseradishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef fillet
The main protein; roasting sets its texture and browns its outer surface.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown while basting.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and moisture to balance the rich, fatty beef.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity tartness that contrasts with the rich meat.

The step that matters

Roast the fillet for at least 1 hour and 20 minutes.. Lean beef fillet dries out and toughens with prolonged heat. Doneness depends on the internal temperature of the meat, so the cook should check it rather than rely on time alone.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, tomato, sauce, horseradish):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, tomato, sauce, horseradish. 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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