Name: To Roast a Fillet of Beef
Ingredients: 1 fillet of beef; butter for basting; tomato sauce, sauce piquante, or eschalot sauce for serving; brown gravy and currant jelly (optional); force-meat balls (optional, for garnish)

Why it works: Beef and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,448 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Roast a Fillet of Beef

Ingredients

1 fillet of beef
butter for basting
tomato sauce, sauce piquante, or eschalot sauce for serving
brown gravy and currant jelly (optional)
force-meat balls (optional, for garnish)

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

Using a sharp knife, raise the fillet from the inside of the sirloin, leaving the fat on and trimming off the skin.
Lard the fillet all over or roast it plain.

Roast

Baste the fillet with butter while roasting.
Roast in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Serve

Serve very hot with your choice of sauce in a tureen.
If desired, garnish with force-meat balls and serve with brown gravy and currant jelly.

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.

Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of beef: Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, juicy centre.
Butter: Basting adds richness and helps the surface brown and stay moist in the oven.

The step that matters

Roasting in a hot oven. Roasting at 400°F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes needs close attention, because the fillet can overcook quickly and dry out. Its internal temperature rises steadily, so timing and basting together keep the meat moist and evenly browned.