Skip to main content
Main

To Roast Meat Well

A method for roasting meat with salt, pepper, flour, and hot water to keep juices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Roast Meat Well

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. Wipe the meat with a wet cloth.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then dredge with flour.

Roast

  1. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) to sear the outside.

  2. Baste the meat frequently after 10 minutes.

  3. Avoid using a fork to turn the meat to keep the juices in.

  4. Add a little hot water to the pan for basting after 10 to 15 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
The main protein, whose juiciness depends on searing, basting and gentle handling.
Flour
Coats the surface, helping it brown and form a crisp outer crust.
Hot water
Added to the pan for basting, adding moisture that keeps the surface from drying out.

The step that matters

Avoid using a fork to turn the meat. Piercing the meat with a fork lets juices escape from the cut surface, which leaves the finished meat drier. Turning with tongs or a spatula avoids this.

“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.

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMeat CakesMeat Cakes35 recipes