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Fiujcts Op Beef with Anchovy

Beef fillet simmered with anchovies, bacon, broth and white wine, then finished with a cream and egg yolk sauce containing capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fiujcts Op Beef with Anchovy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the anchovies

  1. Soak the anchovies in water for about 2 hours, then remove them from the water.

  2. Split the anchovies.

Cook the fillet

  1. Combine the anchovies with the fillet and bacon.

  2. Boil on low heat with broth, white wine, garlic, cloves, and herbs until cooked through.

  3. Strain the sauce.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add butter rolled in flour, cream, capers, and egg yolk to the sauce, and mix well.

  2. Pour the sauce over the fillet.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Garlic + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Melt into the sauce, adding a salty, savoury depth without a distinct fishy taste.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour and butter thicken the sauce, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies and enriches the sauce, helping it thicken and turn silky.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid, balancing the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat and can scramble if the sauce is boiling. Keep the sauce warm, not boiling, and stir well so it becomes smooth and glossy rather than curdled.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, garlic, thyme, parsley, butter, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, garlic, thyme, parsley, butter, 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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