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Fillets of Beef a LA Princess Louise

Beef fillets served with anchovy butter, oysters, glaze, and bean puree, topped with a sauce of velouté, tomato, and oyster liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fillets of Beef a LA Princess Louise

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.

Cook the fillets

  1. Lard the fillets of beef with fat bacon.

  2. Sauté the fillets in butter for a few minutes.

  3. Place the fillets in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove from the oven and brush with glaze.

Assemble and serve

  1. Top each fillet with a small piece of anchovy butter and an oyster.

  2. Sprinkle with more glaze and serve on the puree of beans.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine veloute sauce, tomato pulp, extract of meat, oyster liquor, and lemon juice.

  2. Boil the sauce together and strain through a fine sieve.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Beef + beanstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 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

Fillets of beef
Form the main body of the dish, cooked tender in a hot oven after searing in butter.
Fat bacon (in the method)
Larding adds fat and moisture inside the lean beef as it cooks.
Anchovy butter
Adds salty, savoury richness that melts over each fillet as it is served.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour and their liquor enriches the sauce.
Veloute sauce
Provides a smooth, creamy base that thickens the finished sauce.
Tomato pulp
Adds acidity and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce together and strain through a fine sieve. Boiling reduces and concentrates the sauce, while straining removes solids so it stays smooth. Oyster liquor and tomato can curdle or taste harsh if overcooked, so watch the heat.

“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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