Why it works: Beef and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,847 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Larded Beef -fillet, with Chateaubriand-sauce
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slack oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Trim and lard the beef fillet.
Mask the bottom of a roasting pan with chopped beef fat and minced vegetables.
Place the fillet on the vegetables, season with salt, and moisten with broth.
Cover the meat with a buttered sheet of paper.
Roast and serve
Roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting frequently with melted fat.
Drain the fillet, place it on a dish, and baste with Chateaubriand sauce.
Serve with a vegetable garnish.
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.
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef fillet
- Forms the main cut of meat, which is roasted until tender and sliced for serving.
- Chopped beef fat
- Adds richness and moisture as it melts, basting the meat during roasting.
- Broth
- Moistens the fillet and vegetables in the pan, adding savory flavor and steam.
- Butter
- Enriches the buttered paper covering, helping keep the surface from drying.
The step that matters
Covering the fillet and basting during roasting. Covering with buttered paper and frequent basting with melted fat help keep the lean fillet moist and prevent its surface from drying out during the long roast.
“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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