Name: Sirloin of Beef En Epigram
Ingredients: 1 sirloin of beef; ½ pint gravy; 1 onion, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons catsup; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; 6 small pickled cucumbers, sliced thin; butter, rolled in flour

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sirloin of Beef En Epigram

Ingredients

Directions

Roast and prepare the meat

Roast the sirloin until done, then carefully remove the skin.
Cut out the loin part, avoiding the ends and sides.
Hash the meat into pieces the size of a crown piece.

Make the sauce and assemble

In a stewpan, combine gravy, chopped onion, catsup, pepper, salt, sliced cucumbers, and butter rolled in flour.
Add the hashed meat and shake for five minutes.
Place the mixture back on the sirloin and cover with the skin.
Garnish with lemon and pickles, then 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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,991 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

Gravy: Provides liquid that moistens the hashed meat and forms the body of the sauce.
Butter: Rolled in flour, it thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Sliced pickled cucumbers: Add sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the beef and gravy.
Catsup: Adds sweetness and tang to the sauce.

Swap the cucumber

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

Potatofits better
Chivefits better
Leekfits better
Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, 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.