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To Roast Sirloin, or Ribs of Beef

A method for roasting a beef joint, such as sirloin or ribs, seasoned with ginger or pepper, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,564 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Roast Sirloin, or Ribs of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the joint

  1. Hang the joint until it is perfectly sweet.

  2. Remove the marrow pipe from the backbone.

  3. Cut out the kernels from the fat.

  4. Guard the meat from flies.

  5. Wipe away any moisture with a dry cloth.

  6. Dust the joint with powdered ginger or pepper.

  7. Trim the ends of the bones if the joint is not very large.

  8. Lay the trimmed ends in salt for a few days.

  9. Boil the salted ends.

Roast

  1. Spit the beef firmly.

  2. Keep the beef far back from the fire until heated through.

  3. Baste the beef constantly while roasting.

  4. Dredge the beef with flour when first placed at the fire.

  5. Sprinkle the beef with fine salt when nearly done.

  6. Roast for a quarter of an hour per pound of meat, adjusting for fire strength and kitchen temperature.

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. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Beef + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,410 recipes

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

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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 joint
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is roasted and carved.
Flour
Dusted on the surface to help form a browned, slightly crisp outer crust.
Powdered ginger or pepper
Adds aroma and a warm, spicy flavour to the outside of the joint.

The step that matters

Keep the beef far back from the fire until heated through. Gentle, indirect heat lets the centre warm evenly before the outside browns too far. Placing the joint too close to a strong fire scorches the surface while the inside stays underdone.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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