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Braized Fillet of Beef, with Madeira Sauce

Braised fillet of beef cooked with Madeira wine, then glazed and served with a reduced sauce and garnish.

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 ↓

Braized Fillet of Beef, with Madeira Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and braise

  1. Lard the fillet of beef and prepare it for braising.

  2. Moisten the fillet with the bottle of Madeira.

  3. Braise the fillet gently on a slow fire, basting frequently with its own juices.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooked, glaze the fillet and place it on a serving dish.

  2. Garnish with Jardiniere or Macedoine, or nicely fried potatoes.

  3. Clarify the braising liquid, reduce it to half glaze, and use it to sauce the fillet.

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).

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 body of the dish, becoming tender and juicy through slow braising.
Madeira
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid, which reduces into the sauce.
Vegetables for braising
Flavour the braising liquid and add aroma as they release their sugars and juices.

The step that matters

Braise the fillet gently on a slow fire. Gentle heat lets the connective tissue soften slowly without squeezing out moisture, so the fillet stays tender. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and encourages even browning and glazing.

“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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