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To Dress the Inside of Cold Sirloin of Beef

A fricassee made from thinly sliced cold sirloin, simmered with butter, broth, onions, parsley, anchovy, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Dress the Inside of Cold Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Remove the fat from the meat.

  2. Cut the beef into very thin slices.

Make the fricassee

  1. Combine the beef, shredded parsley, quartered onion, butter, and strong broth in a stew-pan.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  4. Add port wine. Mix well.

  5. Toss the fat in a rich gravy with anchovy and shallot. Do not let it boil.

  6. Add shredded parsley before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve the fricassee in a dish.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Shallot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Little fat
Enriches the gravy with richness and a savoury, mellow flavour when tossed through it.
Rich gravy
Provides moisture and body, coating the beef and carrying the sauce's flavour.
Anchovy
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour that enriches the sauce without tasting strongly of fish.
Shallot
Contributes a mild, sweet onion aroma that builds the base flavour of the sauce.
Strong broth
Supplies liquid and savoury depth for the stew to simmer in and reduce into sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, acidity and fruity depth to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Do not let the gravy boil after adding the fat. Boiling can toughen the meat and cause the fat and gravy to separate or turn greasy, so it should stay gently hot and never reach a rolling boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (anchovy, shallot, parsley, butter, pepper, port wine):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, shallot, parsley, butter, pepper, port wine. 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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