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Fillet of Beef Stewed

A stew of a rolled beef fillet with ham, carrots, celery, onions, herbs, pickle, and seasonings, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Roll the beef with the fat in the center.

  2. In a stewpan, add a little stock and slices of ham.

  3. Place the rolled beef in the pan, covering it with diced carrots, celery, onions, herbs, and pickle.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, mace, and ketchup.

Cook and serve

  1. Simmer until tender, then brown the beef before the fire.

  2. Skim and season the sauce, remove the herbs, and serve hot.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Inside sirloin of beef
Forms the main body of the stew and becomes tender through slow simmering.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the stock and sauce.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and soften into the sauce as it cooks.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour that builds the base of the sauce.
Small onions
Add sweetness and body to the sauce as they cook down.
Ketchup
Adds acidity and a sweet-tangy depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender, then brown the beef before the fire. Simmering slowly breaks down the connective tissue in the beef, so it must be fully tender before browning. Browning adds colour and roasted flavour at the surface, but cooking too hard or too fast can toughen the meat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, carrot, celery, onion, pepper, ketchup):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, carrot, celery, onion, pepper, ketchup. 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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