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Fillet of Beef

A stuffed beef fillet roasted on a spit, basted with wine, vinegar, spices, and butter, served with gravy and currant jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the inside of the sirloin in port wine and vinegar for 24 hours.

  2. Prepare a stuffing as you would for hare and place it in the center of the beef.

  3. Roll the beef tightly and secure it.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast on a spit, basting with a mixture of wine, vinegar, Jamaica pepper, and powdered cloves until dry.

  2. Baste with butter and serve with rich gravy and currant jelly sauce.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Port wine + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together914 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin of beef
Forms the main roast; rolling and securing it holds the stuffing in place.
Port wine
Soaks into the beef, adding moisture and a sweet, fruity flavour.
Vinegar
Acidity in the soaking and basting mixture that tenderises the meat and sharpens the flavour.
Butter
Basting fat that adds richness and helps the surface brown.
Jamaica pepper
Adds warm, aromatic spice to the basting mixture.

The step that matters

Roasting on a spit with repeated basting. Basting with the wine and vinegar mixture keeps the surface moist and flavourful while it cooks. Roasting until dry without burning requires watching heat and timing so the outside browns without drying the interior.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, port wine, vinegar, pepper, clove, butter, sauce):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, port wine, vinegar, pepper, clove, butter, 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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