Name: Roast Sirloin of Beef
Ingredients: 5 lbs sirloin of beef; potatoes; parsnips; apple tart; corn-flour mould (without eggs)

Why it works: Potato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 938 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Roast Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare and roast the beef

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Season the sirloin of beef with salt and pepper.
Place the beef in a roasting pan and roast for about 1.5 to 2 hours, or until it reaches your desired doneness.

Prepare the sides

While the beef is roasting, prepare the potatoes and parsnips by peeling and cutting them into even pieces.
Boil the potatoes and parsnips until tender, then drain and serve alongside the beef.

Serve dessert

Serve the apple tart and corn-flour mould for dessert.

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.

Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Potato + parsniptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together353 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together669 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Parsnip + appletop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together71 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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 protein of the dish and browns in the oven as it roasts.
Potatoes: Provide starch that turns tender when boiled, giving the plate a hearty base.
Parsnips: Add natural sweetness and a tender texture when boiled until soft.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, parsnip, corn, flour, egg):

Limefits better
Coconutfits better
Raisinfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, parsnip, corn, flour, 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.