Why it works: Pepper and cauliflower are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,113 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Beef Grenadines
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Cut the beef into cutlets about ½ inch thick.
Lard the cutlets with thin strips of bacon.
Cook the grenadines
In a stewpan, melt the butter, then add the cutlets to the stewpan.
Sprinkle the top of the cutlets with pepper and salt.
Cook slowly for 15 minutes without frying.
Turn the cutlets and season the other side.
Cook for another 15 minutes.
Make the gravy and serve
Prepare the gravy by thickening ½ pint of brown gravy with 1 tablespoon of flour.
Coat the grenadines with the gravy and place them on a serving dish.
Pour the remaining gravy over the cutlets.
Garnish with boiled and drained vegetables tossed in butter.
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.
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Pepper + cauliflowertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,113 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + cauliflowertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together569 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Beef rump
- Forms the lean cutlets that give the dish its main body and bite.
- Bacon
- Thin strips larded through the cutlets add fat and savoury flavour as they cook.
- Butter
- Melted in the pan to add richness and help the cutlets cook gently.
- Brown gravy
- Provides moisture and savoury flavour, coating the cutlets and serving as the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the brown gravy so it clings to the cutlets instead of running off.
The step that matters
Cook slowly for 15 minutes without frying. Gentle heat lets the lean beef cook through and stay tender, while fast high heat would toughen and dry the cutlets before the interior is done.
Swap the cauliflower
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cauliflowerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, 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.
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