Name: Sirloin of Beef En Epigram
Ingredients: 1 sirloin of beef; ½ pint of stock; 1 onion, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons of ketchup; white pepper, to taste; salt, to taste; 6 small pickled cucumbers, sliced; butter, for cooking; flour, for thickening

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sirloin of Beef En Epigram

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the beef

Roast the sirloin of beef and remove it from the spit.
Carefully lift the skin off the beef and cut out the lean meat without cutting near the ends or sides.
Cut the meat into pieces the size of a coin.

Make the sauce

In a pan, heat ½ pint of stock and add the chopped onion, ketchup, pepper, salt, sliced cucumbers, and gravy from the beef.
Add a little butter rolled in flour and toss the mixture for 5 minutes.

Serve

Place the mixture on the sirloin, cover it with the skin, and serve.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,435 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Thickens the stock and butter mixture into a lightly bound sauce.
Butter: Adds richness and flavour to the sauce and helps the flour thicken it.
Pickled cucumbers: Add a sharp, acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the beef.
Ketchup: Adds sweetness, tang and depth of flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the butter rolled in flour. Flour needs to be cooked in fat and stirred into hot liquid to thicken smoothly without lumps. Tossing the mixture for the stated time lets the starch swell and the sauce thicken evenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, ketchup, cucumber, butter, flour):

Capersfits better
Garlicfits better
Turmericfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, ketchup, cucumber, butter, flour. 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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Beef Broth67 recipes

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Sirloin of Beef En Epigram