Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Roast Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the beef
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the sirloin beef on a spit and roast for 3.5 to 4 hours, turning it evenly.
Add a little clean dripping to the drip pan and cover it with a sheet of paper to preserve the fat.
Baste the beef well as soon as it is placed in the oven.
Continue basting every 15 minutes.
Finish and serve
In the last 30 minutes, remove the paper and prepare gravy.
Stir the fire to make it clear.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the beef.
Baste the beef with butter.
Dredge it with flour.
Let it roast for a few more minutes until frothy.
Remove it from the oven.
Place the beef on a dish.
Serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Sirloin beef
- Is the main cut that is roasted, providing the meat and its flavour.
- Clean dripping
- Adds fat to the drip pan, moistening the beef and flavouring the drippings for gravy.
- Butter
- Used for basting, adding richness and helping the surface brown.
- Flour
- Dredged over the beef so it froths and browns, thickening the drippings for gravy.
The step that matters
Dredging with flour and roasting until frothy. Flour sprinkled on hot fat forms a browned, thickened crust and gravy base; if the beef is left too long or the flour is added too early, it can scorch and turn bitter.
“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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