Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roasting
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 your oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a dripping pan, add a little salt and water, then baste the meat.
Once dry, dredge the meat with flour and baste with fresh butter for color.
Roast
Adjust the fire based on the size of the meat; use a brisk fire for small cuts and a larger fire for larger joints.
Ensure the fire is clear at the bottom; stir the dripping pan to maintain a good fire.
For beef, cover the top with paper and baste frequently, sprinkling salt only after it starts cooking.
When smoke rises, remove the paper, baste again, and dredge with flour to create a frothy appearance.
For mutton or lamb, raise and skewer the skin, then remove it near the end of cooking to baste and flour.
Roast veal until it is a fine brown, keeping it at a distance from the fire initially, then move it closer as it cooks.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,529 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Meat
- Forms the dish itself; its size and cut determine the fire and timing needed.
- Flour
- Dredged onto the meat to build a dry crust that browns and turns frothy as it roasts.
- Butter
- Basted over the meat to add fat, moisture and golden color to the surface.
The step that matters
Keeping the fire steady and the meat at the right distance. Too hot a fire browns the outside before the inside cooks, while too weak a fire dries the meat slowly. Matching fire strength to the size of the cut and moving veal closer only once it has begun to cook helps the meat cook evenly and brown well.
“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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