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Fillet of Beef Braised

A braised beef fillet cooked with onions, turnip, carrot, celery, leek, parsley, thyme, and peach leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef Braised

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Carefully cut out the fillet from the sirloin, leaving a small portion of fat.

  2. Lard the fillet lengthwise with small pieces of fat bacon.

  3. Combine the onions, turnip, carrot, celery, leek, parsley, thyme, and peach leaves in a bowl.

  4. Moisten the vegetables with ghee or olive oil.

Marinate

  1. Place the fillet in a deep dish and cover it with the vegetable mixture.

  2. Let the fillet marinate for 12 hours.

Roast and serve

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

  2. Place the fillet on a spit and spread the vegetables on parchment paper, tying it securely with twine.

  3. Oil the paper or baste it with warm ghee to prevent burning.

  4. Roast the fillet for about 1 hour or longer, depending on its size.

  5. Remove the vegetables and brown the fillet lightly before serving.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin
Forms the lean beef fillet that is the main protein and carries the dish.
Onions
Break down during cooking to add sweetness and savory aroma to the braise.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the aromatic vegetable base.
Celery
Contributes savory aroma and moisture as it softens around the meat.
Ghee or olive oil
Carries flavor, keeps the surface moist, and helps the fillet brown.

The step that matters

Roasting time. Meat proteins firm and dry as they heat, so the fillet can overcook if left too long. Since the record gives only an approximate time that depends on size, the cook should judge doneness by the fillet's size and appearance rather than the clock alone.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, turnip, carrot, celery, leek, parsley, thyme):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, turnip, carrot, celery, leek, parsley, thyme. 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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