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To Dress the Inside of Cold Sirloin of Beef

A cold sirloin of beef is sliced, coated in flour, fried, then tossed in a pepper, salt, anchovy, shallot gravy and finished with vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Dress the Inside of Cold Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the meat and a little fat into pieces as thick as your finger and two inches long.

  2. Dredge the pieces in flour and fry in butter until nicely browned.

Make the dressing

  1. Drain the butter from the meat and toss it in a rich gravy seasoned with pepper, salt, anchovy, and shallot. Do not let it boil.

  2. Before serving, add 2 tablespoons of vinegar.

  3. Garnish with crimped parsley.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin of beef
Provides the meat that is browned and served in the gravy.
Flour
Coats the meat so it browns well and helps thicken the gravy.
Butter
Fries the floured meat, giving it browning and a rich flavour.
Anchovy
Adds a savoury, salty depth to the gravy.
Shallot
Adds mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil. Once the gravy is seasoned and the meat is added, boiling can toughen the meat and make the gravy separate or turn greasy, so keep it hot but below a boil.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, butter, pepper, anchovy, vinegar, parsley):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, butter, pepper, anchovy, vinegar, parsley. 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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