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Fillet of Beef, with Mushroom Sauce

A seasoned beef fillet baked in a hot oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Fillet of Beef, with Mushroom Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the beef fillet using a sharp knife, along with any muscle and ligament.

  2. If the fillet is not round, skewer it to shape it properly.

  3. Lard the upper surface of the fillet.

  4. Dredge the fillet with salt, pepper, and flour.

Bake

  1. Place the fillet in a small pan without water.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, starting on the lower rack for the first 10 minutes, then move to the grate for the remaining time.

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. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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 fillet
Forms the main cut; its lean muscle becomes tender and juicy when cooked gently in dry heat.
Lard
Adds fat that bastes the lean fillet as it cooks, helping keep it moist.
Flour
Coats the surface so it browns more evenly and helps form a crust.

The step that matters

Baking the fillet in a hot oven. Lean beef fillet dries out quickly if overcooked, and the surface needs high heat to brown. Watching the time and moving the fillet between racks helps it cook evenly.

“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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