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Fillet of Beef a LA Jussienne

A roasted beef fillet served with a rich sauce of sherry, stock, tomatoes, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Fillet of Beef a LA Jussienne

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fillet

  1. Remove all unnecessary fat from the fillet of beef and lard the top with lardons of fat bacon.

  2. Trim the lardons evenly with scissors and tie the fillet with thin string.

Braise

  1. In a stew pan, combine the sliced carrot, onions, turnips, marjoram, basil, cloves, mace, peppercorns, celery, and herbs.

  2. Cover with buttered paper, place the lid on the pan, and cook on the stove for 15-20 minutes.

  3. Add ½ cup sherry and ½ cup stock, then cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes per pound of meat after the gravy has boiled.

  4. Baste regularly and add more stock as needed.

Glaze and serve

  1. Once cooked, place the fillet on a baking tin and brush with warm glaze.

  2. Return to the oven for about 10 minutes, then remove the strings.

  3. Insert 2-3 skewer sticks into the fillet, garnish with cooked tomatoes, button mushrooms, and braised onions, and serve with sauce.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, remove fat from the gravy, combine it with the tomato pulp, glaze, brown sauce, and sherry in a stew pan.

  2. Boil down to ¼ of the original volume, strain, and mix with chopped mushrooms and carmine.

  3. Reboil for 10 minutes, strain again, and serve.

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. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef fillet
Is the main cut that is braised and sliced, giving the dish its body and substance.
Fat bacon lardons
Lard the lean fillet, adding fat and moisture as they render during the long cooking.
Onions
Flavour the braising liquor and gravy, adding sweetness as they soften and brown.
Tomatoes
Pulp thickens and adds acidity and body to the sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquor and the sauce.
Brown sauce
Gives the sauce depth, colour and a rich, savoury body.

The step that matters

Boil down the sauce to one quarter. Reducing concentrates flavour and thickens the sauce through evaporation. Stopping too early leaves it thin and dilute, while over-reducing can make it salty and sticky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, turnip, marjoram, basil, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, turnip, marjoram, basil, clove. 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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