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To Braise the Inside of a Sirloin of Beef

A braised sirloin fillet wrapped in bacon and seasoned with thyme, spices, and herbs, simmered in beef broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,563 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Braise the Inside of a Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the fillet from the joint and trim off all the skin.

  2. Roll the bacon strips in thyme, spices, pepper, and salt.

  3. Lard the fillet with the bacon mixture and tie it with kitchen twine.

Braise

  1. Line a braising pan with bacon slices, then add a layer of beef or veal.

  2. Add onions, bay leaves, carrots, and sweet herbs, then place the fillet on top.

  3. Cover the fillet with more bacon slices and add meat trimmings around it.

  4. Pour the beef broth or gravy over the fillet.

  5. Cover and simmer gently for 2.5 hours.

  6. Remove the fillet and keep it hot.

Make the gravy

  1. Strain the gravy and reduce it by boiling until thick enough to glaze.

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 + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 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

Sirloin beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long gentle simmering.
Bacon
Wrapped and layered around the fillet, it adds fat and savoury flavour as it cooks.
Beef broth or gravy
Provides liquid for gentle braising and, once reduced, a thick glaze for the fillet.
Onions
Release moisture and sweetness into the braising liquid, adding depth to the gravy.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the braising liquid and the reduced gravy.

The step that matters

Cover and simmer gently for 2.5 hours. Gentle, covered simmering breaks down connective tissue slowly and keeps the fillet moist. A hard boil toughens the meat and can dry the surface, so keep the liquid at a low simmer.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, thyme, pepper, carrot. 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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