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To Braise the Inside of a Sirloin of Beef

Bacon-wrapped sirloin fillet braised with onions, carrots, herbs, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,563 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Braise the Inside of a Sirloin of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the fillet from the joint and trim off all skin, smoothing the surface.

  2. Roll bacon strips in thyme, spices, pepper, and salt.

  3. Lard the fillet with the bacon strips and tie it with kitchen twine.

Braise

  1. Line a braising pan with bacon slices, then add a layer of beef or veal, onions, bay leaves, carrots, and sweet herbs.

  2. Place the fillet on top, cover with bacon, and add meat trimmings around it.

  3. Pour in the beef broth or gravy and simmer gently for 2.5 hours.

Finish the gravy

  1. Remove the fillet and keep it hot; strain the gravy and reduce it by boiling until thick enough to glaze.

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. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin beef
Forms the main joint that is larded, braised and sliced for serving.
Bacon
Lards the lean fillet and bastes it with fat as it cooks, adding savoury flavour.
Onions
Break down during braising, adding sweetness and body to the surrounding liquid for the gravy.
Carrots
Release sugars and aroma into the braising liquid, sweetening and rounding the gravy.
Beef broth or gravy
Provides the braising liquid, which gently cooks the meat and forms the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2.5 hours. A gentle simmer keeps the lean fillet tender and moist; vigorous boiling toughens muscle fibres and dries the meat. The liquid should barely bubble.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, thyme, pepper, carrot. 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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