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Fillet of Beef a LA Marinade

A marinated fillet of beef braised with carrots, turnips, onion, celery, herbs, vinegar, water, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef a LA Marinade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Take the underside of a sirloin of beef, keeping the fat on one side, and trim it.

  2. Lard the beef and place it in a deep dish.

Marinate

  1. Add the sliced carrots, turnips, onion, celery, parsley, sweet herbs, mace, cloves, peppercorns, vinegar, cold water, and port wine.

  2. Let it marinate for 1–2 days, basting frequently with the marinade.

Braise

  1. Braise the beef over low heat until tender.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 body of the dish and becomes tender through slow, moist cooking.
Vinegar
Its acidity helps loosen the meat's surface during the marinade.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the marinade and the resulting sauce.
Carrots
Release sweetness and aromatic flavour into the marinade and braising liquid.
Onion
Contributes savoury aroma and sweetness as it softens in the liquid.

The step that matters

Braise the beef over low heat until tender. Low, gentle heat lets collagen in the tough sirloin slowly break down into gelatin, making the meat tender and moist. High heat tightens the muscle fibres and dries the meat, so keep the liquid at a gentle simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, parsley, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, parsley, clove. 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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