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Cold Roast Reef

A cold roast beef dish simmered in broth, onion, butter, port wine, pyroligneous acid, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold Roast Reef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the beef

  1. Combine the beef slices and strong broth in a stewpan.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, scored onion, and butter.

  3. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  4. Stir in the port wine, pyroligneous acid, and egg yolks.

  5. Mix well and stew quickly.

Serve

  1. Rub the dish with a shallot.

  2. Pour the fricassée into it.

  3. Serve.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Beef + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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, becoming tender as it simmers in the broth.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with the heat, giving it a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stew quickly after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat, but if they are held at too high a temperature for too long they curdle and turn grainy. Mixing well and stewing quickly keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, butter, port wine, egg):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, butter, port wine, egg. 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.

More cold roast beef recipes

Fricassee 21with Gravy 8Curry 3 See all 6 →

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