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Filet Braisa, Madeira Sauce

Filet braised in rich tomato sauce with Madeira and sherry, optionally with mushrooms and truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Filet Braisa, Madeira Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Braise the filet as directed.

  2. Strain off the sauce.

  3. Add an equal quantity of rich tomato sauce and boil down for 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in ½ cup of sherry and serve.

  5. If desired, add chopped mushrooms and truffles.

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. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together492 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Rich tomato sauce
Forms the body of the sauce and adds savory acidity and depth.
Sherry
Adds a sweet, aromatic note that brightens the rich sauce.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a meaty texture when included.
Truffles
Add a concentrated, aromatic earthy flavor when included.

The step that matters

Boil down the sauce for 5 minutes. Reducing concentrates the flavor and thickens the sauce by evaporating water. Boiling too briefly leaves it thin and diluted, while overcooking can make it too strong or salty.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, sherry, mushroom, truffle):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, sherry, mushroom, truffle. 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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