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Roast Beef

Roast beef with a simple gravy made from drippings, flour, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Roast Beef

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the beef

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

  2. Wipe the beef thoroughly with a clean wet towel.

  3. Place the beef on a rack in a dripping pan and baste with butter or suet fat.

Roast and season

  1. Roast in the oven, basting frequently with its own drippings.

  2. When two-thirds done, season with salt and pepper.

  3. Once cooked, transfer to a hot platter.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour off the fat from the drippings in the pan.

  2. Add flour to the drippings, stir until brown, then pour in boiling water and stir until smooth.

  3. Season, strain, and serve the gravy with the beef.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Beef roast
The main cut, cooked by dry oven heat so its outside browns while the inside stays juicy.
Butter or suet fat
Coats the meat during roasting, adding richness and helping the surface brown.
Flour
Thickens the pan drippings into a gravy as it cooks in the fat.

The step that matters

Basting and timing the roast. Basting with drippings keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly. Seasoning only at two-thirds of cooking lets salt penetrate without drawing out too much early moisture, so the roast should be checked for doneness before resting.

“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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