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Roasts. . Beef

A roast beef prepared with a gravy made from its own drippings and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roasts. . Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beef

  1. Skewer the beef joint and tie it tightly with string.

  2. Dust both sides with a little flour.

  3. Place in a baking tin with some good dripping.

Roast

  1. Roast in a very hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for five minutes, then turn to set gravy on both sides.

  2. Lower the heat slightly and baste frequently, turning once more later.

  3. Cook for about fifteen minutes per pound.

  4. Ensure the beef is slightly red in the center.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Transfer the beef to a very hot dish, pour off the fat slowly, leaving sediment.

  2. Sprinkle with flour, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and about ½ pint of hot water.

  3. Stir until it boils and serve in a soup tureen.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beef joint
Forms the main meat that cooks through and provides the roast's flavour and texture.
Flour
Dusted on the meat and stirred into the drippings to thicken the gravy.
Dripping
Fat that conducts heat for browning the beef and carries flavour into the gravy.
Hot water
Liquid that dissolves the browned sediment and turns the drippings into gravy.

The step that matters

Roasting the beef to the right doneness. Cooking time depends on weight, so the centre can easily overcook. Checking that it stays slightly pink keeps the meat tender and juicy, since muscle fibres toughen and dry out as they get hotter.

“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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