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Stewed Sirloin of Beef

A slow‑cooked beef joint wrapped in bacon, seasoned with mace, pepper, and herbs, served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the fillet from the sirloin and set aside for another dish.

  2. Carefully remove the bones from the sirloin or have a butcher do it.

  3. Spread the meat flat and cover the inside with thin slices of bacon.

  4. Season the meat with coarse sea salt, mace or nutmeg, and pepper or cayenne.

  5. Roll the meat tightly and bind it firmly, then place it in a stewpan.

Stew

  1. Add the bones and enough beef broth to nearly cover the joint.

  2. If broth is unavailable, place slices of ham or bacon under the beef and add cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim off the scum, then add the faggot of savory herbs, carrots, leeks or large onion with cloves.

  4. After an hour, add the mace and peppercorns.

  5. Stew gently for 4–5 hours, longer if the joint is large.

Serve

  1. Serve with Espagnole sauce, piquant sauce, or brown caper sauce.

  2. Adjust salt before adding vegetables, and reduce the cooking liquid to make soup or gravy.

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. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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 joint, which becomes tender and flavourful during slow stewing.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the meat as it cooks.
Beef broth
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the joint and builds a rich flavour.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid, which later becomes gravy or soup.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 4–5 hours. Low, gentle heat breaks down the connective tissue in the tough joint slowly, making it tender. A hard boil toughens and dries the meat, so the liquid should only simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, pepper, carrot, leek, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, pepper, carrot, leek, butter. 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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