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Braized Fillet of Beef, with Madeira Sauce

A braised beef fillet finished with a Madeira sauce and garnished with vegetables or potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Braized Fillet of Beef, with Madeira Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the fillet

  1. Prepare the fillet of beef for braising.

  2. Moisten the fillet with the Madeira.

  3. Braise the fillet gently on low heat, basting frequently with its own juices.

  4. Glaze the fillet.

Make the sauce

  1. Clarify the braising liquid.

  2. Reduce it to half glaze.

  3. Use it to sauce the fillet.

Serve

  1. Place it on a serving dish.

  2. Garnish with Jardiniere, Macedoine, or nicely fried potatoes.

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 + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of beef
Main cut that is braised slowly, staying tender and juicy as it cooks.
Madeira
Wine that moistens the fillet and adds sweet, rich flavor to the braising liquid.
Vegetables for braising
Aromatic base that flavors the braising liquid as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Braise the fillet gently on low heat. Low, gentle heat keeps the meat's proteins from tightening and drying out, so the fillet stays tender. Frequent basting with its juices keeps the surface moist and helps build a glossy glaze.

“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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