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To Roast Sirloin or Ribs of Beef

Roast beef prepared by seasoning with salt and pepper, rubbing with butter or oil, and cooking at 400°F until medium-rare.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Roast Sirloin or Ribs of 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

  2. Season the beef generously with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Place the beef in a roasting pan and rub with butter or oil.

Roast and rest

  1. Roast in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes per pound for medium-rare.

  2. Let the beef rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

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

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

  2. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin or ribs of beef
Provides the main protein and fat that make up the roast itself.
Butter or oil
Coats the surface, carrying heat and helping the outside brown during roasting.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat deeply and helps form a flavorful crust on the surface.

The step that matters

Let the beef rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.. Heat drives juices toward the centre of the meat. Resting lets the muscle fibres relax so the juices redistribute, rather than running out onto the board when cut.

“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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