Why it works: Beef and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast. Sirloin, Ribs, or Round of Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Grease the beef joint with dripping, if desired.
Place the joint in a paper bag without seasoning.
Put the bagged joint on a grid in the oven.
Cook for 45 minutes for a 3-pound joint, 1 hour and 20 minutes for a 7-pound joint, 2 hours and 15 minutes for a 14-pound joint, or 3 hours for a 20-pound joint.
For a thicker gravy, roll the joint in flour before placing it in the bag.
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.
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Provides the main meat; gentle, low-temperature cooking keeps it moist and tender.
- Dripping
- Adds fat to the outside of the joint, supporting browning and a richer flavour.
- Flour
- Starch that thickens the meat juices into a gravy.
The step that matters
Match the cooking time to the joint's weight. Cooking time depends on the size of the joint. Too little time leaves the centre underdone, while going well past the stated time at this low temperature dries the meat out.
“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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