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Sirloin of Beef

A roasted sirloin steak cooked in the oven and thickened with flour and water or brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sirloin of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Choose a sirloin cut that is evenly sized.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Roast

  1. Place the beef in the oven for 15 minutes to seal the meat.

  2. Reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) and cook for ¼ hour per pound.

  3. Baste the meat continually.

Make the gravy

  1. Strain off the drippings and thicken with flour and water or brown sauce.

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 + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin of beef
The main cut, providing the meat, texture and flavour of the roast.
Flour
Thickens the strained drippings into gravy as its starch swells with heat.

The step that matters

Reduce the heat and time the roast by weight. Cooking time depends on the size of the cut, and the meat keeps cooking as it rests, so pulling it too late dries it out. Basting keeps the surface moist while the centre cooks gently at the lower heat.

“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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