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Stewed Sirloin of Beef

A slow‑cooked stew of sirloin wrapped in bacon, seasoned with salt, mace, pepper, and herbs, simmered with broth or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the joint

  1. Remove the fillet from the sirloin and set aside for another dish.

  2. Carefully remove the bones from the sirloin or have the butcher do it.

  3. Spread the meat flat and cover the inside with bacon slices.

  4. Sprinkle the meat with salt, mace or nutmeg, and pepper or cayenne.

  5. Roll the meat tightly and bind it.

  6. Optionally, brown the beef in butter before adding broth or water.

  7. Place the rolled sirloin in a stewpan.

Make the stock

  1. Add the bones and enough beef broth to nearly cover the joint.

  2. If broth is unavailable, place slices of ham or bacon under the beef and add veal knuckle or stewing beef pieces.

  3. Pour cold water to cover the meat if using water instead of broth.

  4. Bring the liquid to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  5. Add the faggot of herbs, carrots, leeks, and onion with cloves.

  6. After one hour, add mace and peppercorns.

  7. Stew gently for 4 to 5 hours, longer for a larger joint.

Finish and serve

  1. Adjust salt before adding vegetables.

  2. Reduce the cooking liquid to a soup or gravy after removing the meat.

  3. Serve with Espagnole sauce, sauce piquante, or brown caper sauce.

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. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin of beef
Forms the main meat that becomes tender and juicy during slow stewing.
Striped bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the lean beef as it cooks.
Beef broth
Provides liquid that gently cooks the joint and becomes the base for the gravy.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stewing liquid as they soften.
Leeks
Contribute a mild onion-like aroma and depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 4 to 5 hours. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets collagen in the meat break down slowly, producing tender meat without toughening its fibers and keeping the broth clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, veal, carrot, leek, onion, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, veal, carrot, leek, onion, clove. 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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