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Bouilli with Sharp Sauce

A dish of sliced cold beef baked with stock, pepper, and salt, served with piquant or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bouilli with Sharp Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold beef across the grain into slices ¼ inch thick.

  2. Trim off the gristle and outside parts.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the meat in a small gratin dish, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and moisten with stock.

  2. Bake the meat in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 minutes.

  3. Serve with piquant or tomato sauce poured over the meat.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold beef
Provides the main protein, which is sliced and gently heated so it stays tender.
Stock
Adds moisture so the meat warms through without drying out in the oven.

The step that matters

Moistening the meat with stock before baking. Thin slices dry out quickly in dry oven heat. Enough liquid in the dish creates gentle steam and keeps the beef juicy as it warms.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper. 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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