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Braised Fillet of Beef a LA Jardiniere

Braised fillet of beef with bacon, herbs, onions, carrots, and a reduced sherry and consommé glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Braised Fillet of Beef a LA Jardiniere

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Trim the rump fillet and remove the skin from the fillet.

  2. Dip the bacon slices in the minced parsley, thyme, and green onions.

  3. Sprinkle the fillet with pepper and salt.

  4. Tie the bacon around the fillet.

Braise

  1. Line a braising pan with bacon slices.

  2. Place the fillet inside the pan.

  3. Add the button onions, sliced carrots, and bay leaf.

  4. Pour in the consommé and sherry.

  5. Stew for 2.5 hours, basting frequently with the gravy.

  6. Remove the meat.

Glaze and finish the gravy

  1. Place the meat in the oven to set the glaze, being careful not to burn it.

  2. Cool the cooking liquid in a pie dish.

  3. Remove the fat from the liquid.

  4. Return the fat‑free gravy to the braising pan.

  5. Reduce the gravy by boiling to two‑thirds.

  6. Before serving, place the fillet back in the braising pan for 5 minutes.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 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. Thyme + carrottop 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

Rump fillet of beef
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the meat as it cooks and keeps it moist.
Consommé
Forms the moist braising liquid that cooks the meat and becomes the gravy.
Pale sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid, deepening the flavour of the gravy.
Button onions
Contribute sweetness and body to the braising liquid as they soften.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and colour to the braising liquid and vegetables.

The step that matters

Reducing the gravy to two-thirds. Boiling the defatted liquid concentrates its flavour and thickens it into a glaze-like sauce. Reducing too far or too fast can scorch the gravy or make it overly salty, so watch it closely.

Swap the onion

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

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

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