Skip to main content
Main

Fillet of Beef “Braise a LA Puree De Tomates.”

A braised beef fillet cooked with wine, stock, aromatics, and tomato puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef “Braise a LA Puree De Tomates.”

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the beef

  1. In a stewpan, combine the beef, light white wine, brandy, stock, onion, carrot, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim carefully, then let it simmer until the beef is done, either by the fire or in the oven.

Make the sauce

  1. Remove the beef and skim the sauce again, then strain it.

  2. Return the sauce to the heat to reduce, then add the thick puree of tomatoes.

  3. Simmer together for 10 minutes and serve around the beef.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through slow, moist simmering.
Thick puree of tomatoes
Adds acidity, body and savoury depth to the reduced sauce.
Light white wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid as it reduces.
Stock
Supplies the liquid that gently cooks the beef and forms the base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer until the beef is done. Gentle simmering, rather than a hard boil, lets the connective tissue in the beef break down slowly so it turns tender without drying out. Boiling tightens muscle fibres and toughens the meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, brandy, carrot, thyme, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, brandy, carrot, thyme, parsley, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes