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 ↓
Eoast Beef
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Roast
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the sirloin beef on a spit before the fire for 3.5 to 4 hours.
Ensure the beef is evenly cooked by adjusting the spit as needed.
Add a little clean dripping to the dripping pan and cover it with a sheet of paper to preserve the fat.
Baste the beef well as soon as it is placed down.
Continue basting the beef every 15 minutes.
In the last 30 minutes, remove the paper.
Finish and serve
Prepare the gravy.
Stir the fire to make it clear.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the beef.
Baste the beef with butter.
Dredge the beef with flour.
Let it cook for a few more minutes until frothy.
Remove it from the heat.
Place the beef on a dish and 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.
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
- Forms the main meat, which becomes tender and browned as it roasts over the fire.
- Clean dripping
- Adds fat for basting, carrying flavour and helping the surface brown and stay moist.
- Butter
- Adds richness and aroma to the basting, helping the surface brown and taste rounded.
- Flour
- Dredged onto the beef, it helps build a browned crust and thickens the drippings.
The step that matters
Basting the beef regularly. Basting spreads hot fat over the surface, keeping the meat moist and helping the exterior brown evenly. Letting the surface dry out leads to a tough, dull crust.
“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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