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To Roast Sirloin, or Ribs of Beef

A method for roasting a joint of beef, such as sirloin or ribs, seasoned with powdered ginger or pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,564 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Roast Sirloin, or Ribs of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the joint until it is perfectly seared.

  2. Remove the marrow from the backbone and cut out the fat.

  3. In warm weather, guard against flies and wipe off any moisture.

  4. Dust the joint with powdered ginger or pepper.

Roast

  1. Spit the beef firmly and place it near the fire to sear the surface.

  2. Once seared, move it away from the fire to cook the interior.

  3. Baste constantly and move it closer to the fire for the last 30 minutes to brown.

  4. If desired, dredge with flour at the start and sprinkle with salt near the end.

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. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Beef + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,410 recipes

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

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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
Forms the main body of the dish; its fat renders and bastes the joint as it roasts.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps form a browned, crisp crust during roasting.

The step that matters

Sear first, then move away from the fire. High heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, building flavour. Moving the joint away afterwards lets the interior cook through gently, so the outside does not burn before the centre is done.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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