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Beef Fillets a LA Naunton

Beef fillets marinated in lemon, oil, spices, then fried and served with gravy, macaroni, and glazed croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Fillets a LA Naunton

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Flatten the fillets and place them on a dish.

  2. Mix lemon juice, salad oil, pepper, cayenne, thyme, bay leaf, and chopped onion.

  3. Marinate the fillets in the mixture for 2 hours, turning often.

Cook the beef and gravy

  1. Drain the fillets and fry them in hot butter for 7-10 minutes until gravy clots on the surface.

  2. Place the fillets on a hot dish.

  3. Prepare the gravy by boiling brown sauce, roast beef gravy, sherry, and lemon juice; season to taste.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the fillets overlapping in the center of a hollowed block of crust.

  2. Pour half the gravy over the fillets and place cooked macaroni around them.

  3. Pour the remaining gravy over the macaroni and garnish with glazed croutons.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef fillets
The main protein; frying sears the surface and sets the texture of the meat.
Salad oil
Carries the lemon, onion and herbs into the meat during marinating and keeps it moist.
Lemon juice
Acidity in the marinade tenderises the beef and brightens the gravy.
Chopped onion
Adds aroma and savoury flavour to the marinade.
Brown sauce
Forms the body and rich, savoury flavour of the gravy.
Roast beef gravy
Adds concentrated meaty flavour and richness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the marinated fillets. Fry in hot butter only until the surface browns and the pan juices begin to clot; overcooking toughens the protein and dries the meat. Drain well first so excess marinade does not steam the fillets instead of browning them.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, lemon, pepper, thyme, butter, sauce, sherry):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, lemon, pepper, thyme, butter, sauce, sherry. 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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