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Stewed Sirloin of Beef

A hearty stew of sirloin, veal, bacon, herbs, and vegetables simmered slowly in broth.

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 beef

  1. Cut out the fillet from the sirloin and reserve it for another dish.

  2. Remove the bones from the sirloin and spread the meat flat.

  3. Cover the inside with bacon slices.

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

  5. Roll and bind the meat firmly.

Stew

  1. Place the rolled meat in a stewpan and add the bones.

  2. Add enough beef broth to nearly cover the joint.

  3. If broth is unavailable, place slices of ham or bacon under the beef.

  4. Add cold water.

  5. Bring the liquid to a boil and skim off the scum.

  6. Add the savory herbs, carrots, and leeks or onion with cloves.

  7. After an hour, add mace and peppercorns.

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

  9. Adjust salt before adding vegetables.

Finish and serve

  1. Reduce the cooking liquid to a soup or gravy after removing the meat.

  2. Serve with Espagnole, sauce piquante, or brown caper 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. 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 meat, which is rolled and stewed until tender.
Veal or stewing beef
Adds connective tissue that softens during long gentle stewing, enriching the liquid.
Striped bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the meat from inside as it cooks.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid.
Leeks or onion
Add savory aroma and sweetness that flavor the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 4-5 hours. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the meat break down slowly into tender texture. A hard boil toughens muscle fibers and makes the meat stringy and dry.

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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