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Hashed Beef, and Broiled Bones

A dish of browned beef trimmings and onions simmered with bones, stock, and ketchup, served with broiled bones.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Hashed Beef, and Broiled Bones

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beef and bones

  1. Cut the fillet from the inside of a sirloin roast into small pieces.

  2. Cut the bones into neat pieces, score them, and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Place the bones in a tart pan and drizzle with oiled butter.

  4. Warm the bones in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  5. Brown the bones on a grill.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine the meat trimmings, bones, sliced onions, a splash of vinegar, and beef stock.

  2. Simmer on low heat for at least 1 hour.

  3. Strain the mixture and skim off the fat.

  4. Melt butter in a stewpan and add flour to the melted butter.

  5. Stir for 1-2 minutes.

  6. Gradually add the strained liquid and stir until it boils.

  7. Add a little ketchup.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the beef to the sauce and keep warm without boiling.

  2. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.

  3. Serve with the broiled bones around the dish.

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

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin fillet
Provides the tender meat that is cooked gently in the sauce.
Beef bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the stock during long simmering, enriching the sauce.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften into the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Beef stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the beef flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the roux with the flour.

The step that matters

Adding the strained liquid to the roux. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour dispersed, preventing lumps and giving a smooth, evenly thickened sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, butter, vinegar, flour, 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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