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Fillet of Beef

A baked beef fillet seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, optionally topped with breadcrumbs and served with mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fillet

  1. Wipe the fillet and remove fat, veins, and tough portions.

  2. Trim the fillet into shape and lard the upper side.

  3. Dredge the fillet with salt, pepper, and flour.

  4. Place pork in the pan under the meat (optional).

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the fillet in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20-30 minutes.

  2. Brush the fillet with beaten egg.

  3. Sprinkle the fillet with seasoned breadcrumbs.

  4. Bake the fillet for 20 minutes.

  5. Serve the fillet with mushroom sauce.

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 + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

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

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef tenderloin
Provides the main cut of meat, which is naturally tender and cooks quickly in dry heat.
Flour
Dry coating that helps the surface brown and gives the seasoning something to cling to.
Beaten egg
Binds the seasoned breadcrumbs to the surface of the fillet.
Seasoned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the fillet.

The step that matters

Bake the fillet in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20-30 minutes.. Hot dry heat browns the outside quickly while the centre stays rarer. Baking too long dries out a lean cut, so check doneness early rather than late.

“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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