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Hashed Beef, and Broiled Bones

A dish of diced sirloin and beef bones simmered with onions, vinegar, and stock, finished with a butter‑flour sauce and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Hashed Beef, and Broiled Bones

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 the beef and bones

  1. Cut the fillet of the inside sirloin into small pieces.

  2. Cut the bones into neat pieces, leaving plenty of meat on them.

  3. Score the bones.

  4. Season the bones with salt and pepper.

  5. Place the bones in a tart pan with oiled butter.

  6. Warm the bones in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

  7. Brown the bones on a grill.

Make the stock

  1. In a stewpan, combine meat trimmings, bones, sliced onions, vinegar, and stock.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly for at least an hour.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Skim off the fat.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add flour to the melted butter. Stir for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Gradually add the strained liquid. Stir until it boils.

  4. Add a little ketchup.

  5. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve.

  6. Return the beef to the sauce. Keep the sauce hot without boiling.

  7. Season if needed.

  8. Serve with the broiled bones around the 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + ketchuptop 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

Fillet of inside sirloin beef
Provides the main meat, tender and juicy when kept from overcooking.
Beef bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the stock, and brown for savoury taste.
Large onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the stock as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth, body-giving sauce.
Beef stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and gives a silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Gradually add the strained liquid to the flour and butter. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps flour lumps from forming, so the roux blends smoothly and thickens evenly as it boils.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, butter, vinegar, flour, ketchup. 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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