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Roast Sirloin of Beef

A roast sirloin served with a batter of milk, eggs, flour, and salt, cooked in a dripping pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Sirloin of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. Place the roast in a dripping pan and pour boiling water over it.

Roast and baste

  1. Baste and season the roast as it cooks.

Make the batter and serve

  1. In a bowl, stir together milk, eggs, flour, and a pinch of salt to make a smooth batter.

  2. Pour the batter into the pan under the meat half an hour before the roast is done.

  3. Serve the Yorkshire pudding on a separate dish.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set and rise as it bakes.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the batter, helping it brown and puff.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into the pan under the meat half an hour before the roast is done. The batter needs a very hot oven and fat to rise and crisp. Pouring it in too early can let it deflate, and too late leaves it undercooked in the centre.

“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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