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To Braise the Inside of a Sirloin of Beef

A small sirloin fillet braised with bacon, thyme, spices, and aromatics in beef broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,563 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Braise the Inside of a Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the fillet from the joint and trim off all the skin.

  2. Roll bacon strips in thyme, spices, pepper, and salt.

  3. Lard the fillet with the bacon and tie it in shape with kitchen twine.

Braise and finish

  1. Line a braising pan with bacon slices, then add a layer of beef or veal, onions, bay leaves, carrots, and sweet herbs.

  2. Place the fillet on top, cover with bacon, and add beef broth or gravy.

  3. Stew gently for 2.5 hours, then keep hot and strain the gravy.

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. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin of beef
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy during slow, gentle braising.
Bacon
Lards the lean fillet and bastes it with fat, adding moisture and savory flavor as it cooks.
Onions
Break down during stewing to add sweetness and body to the surrounding gravy.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during slow stewing, adding sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Beef broth or gravy
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the fillet and forms the base of the strained gravy.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 2.5 hours. Low, slow heat breaks down connective tissue gradually and keeps the lean fillet moist. Boiling would toughen the meat and reduce the liquid too quickly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, thyme, pepper, carrot. 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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