Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roasting Meats
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Rub the beef all over with white ground ginger.
Do not salt the meat.
Place the beef on the spit and roaster, allowing it to warm gradually.
Roast and finish
Baste with cold water every 15 minutes.
Pin a thick piece of paper on the beef to preserve the fat, then remove the paper.
Sprinkle with salt.
Baste with melted butter.
Dredge with flour.
Let it cook until the froth rises.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Beef + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,410 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Sirloin beef
- Forms the main body of the dish and carries the roast's flavour and texture.
- White ground ginger
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the outside of the beef.
- Cold water
- Basting with water adds moisture to the surface as the beef cooks.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat that enriches the surface and helps it brown.
- Flour
- Dredging creates a coating that helps the surface brown and crisp.
The step that matters
Sprinkle with salt. The record says not to salt the meat at the start, and to salt later. Salt applied early draws moisture out of meat, so seasoning later keeps the surface seasoned without drawing out as much juice.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour):
- Jalapenofits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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