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Fillet of Beef, with Tomatoes

A fillet of beef cooked in a tomato-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef, with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Cut the fillet into neat oval slices.

  2. Sprinkle pepper and salt over the slices.

  3. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  4. Add the slices of beef; cook for 4 minutes on one side, then turn and cook for another 4 minutes. Ensure the butter does not burn.

  5. Transfer the meat to a hot plate.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add flour to the butter and stir well.

  2. Add stock or gravy and puree of tomatoes.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Warm the meat in the sauce and serve.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Fillet of beef
Is the main meat, cooked quickly so it stays tender and browns on the surface.
Butter
Conducts heat to the beef and carries flavour; it must be kept from burning to avoid bitterness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and pan juices into a smooth sauce body.
Stock or gravy
Adds savoury liquid that loosens the flour mixture into a sauce.
Puree of tomatoes
Adds acidity and body to the sauce, giving it its colour and tangy flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the butter from burning. Butter solids darken and turn bitter above their smoking point, which would spoil both the beef's flavour and the sauce built from the same pan. Keep the heat moderate while the meat browns.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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