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Fillet of Beef

A roasted beef fillet with celery, onion, carrot, bay leaves, and butter, simmered in salted boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fillet

  1. Remove the coarse membrane and excess fat from the fillet, reserving the trimmings.

  2. Cut larding pork into strips 3 inches long, 4 inches wide, and ½ inch thick. Chill until firm.

  3. Lard the upper side of the fillet with the chilled pork strips.

Assemble and roast

  1. Slice the vegetables and place them in a baking pan with the cloves, bay leaves, and fat trimmings.

  2. Lay the fillet on the vegetables and cover with small pieces of butter.

  3. Dissolve the salt in boiling water and pour it into the pan around the fillet.

  4. Roast according to general rules until cooked to your preference.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

Beef fillet
Forms the main cut; lean meat that cooks quickly and needs careful timing to stay tender.
Larding pork
Adds fat and moisture inside the lean fillet as it melts during roasting.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture over the top of the fillet as it melts and bastes the meat.
Onion
Releases flavour and sweetness into the pan liquid as it softens and browns.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the pan juices as it cooks.

The step that matters

Roasting to doneness. Beef fillet is lean and can turn dry and tough once overcooked, so checking internal temperature rather than relying only on time helps the meat stay juicy and evenly cooked.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, onion, carrot, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, onion, carrot, butter. 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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