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To Roast a Fillet of Beef

A fillet of beef roasted with butter, served hot with tomato sauce, sauce piquante, eschalot sauce, brown gravy, currant jelly, and forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,448 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Roast a Fillet of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the fillet from the inside of the sirloin using a sharp knife.

  2. Leave the fat on and trim off the skin.

  3. Lard the fillet all over or roast it plain.

Roast and serve

  1. Baste with butter while roasting.

  2. Roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes in a brisk fire.

  3. Serve very hot with tomato sauce, sauce piquante, or eschalot sauce in a tureen.

  4. If serving with brown gravy and currant jelly, garnish with forcemeat-balls.

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 + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Fillet of beef
Is the main cut of meat, cooked whole so its tender interior stays juicy.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness to the surface while roasting, encouraging browning and flavour.

The step that matters

Roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes in a brisk fire. A brisk, steady heat browns the outside while the centre cooks through. Too little heat gives grey, steamed meat, and too much dries the outer layer before the interior reaches the desired doneness.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, tomato, sauce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, tomato, sauce. 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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