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Beefsteak Stuffed

A thick round steak stuffed with seasoned bread, fried pork, and simmered in water to create a savory dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roll the seasoned bread stuffing up in the steak and secure the ends with twine.

Cook

  1. In a kettle, fry the pork slices until crisp, then remove them.

  2. Add the stuffed steak to the kettle and brown it on all sides.

  3. Pour in the water and add a little salt, then cover and boil slowly for 2 hours.

  4. Add more water if the mixture becomes too dry.

Serve

  1. Carefully remove the twine, place the beef on a hot dish, and thicken the gravy if necessary.

  2. Pour the gravy over the meat and slice through the roll.

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. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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

Steak from the round
Forms the outer wrapper and provides the main meat that becomes tender during slow cooking.
Bread stuffing
Fills the roll, adding seasoned moisture and body to the centre of the meat.
Pork slices
Fried crisp first, adding fat and savoury flavour to the cooking pan.
Water
Forms the liquid that gently simmers the meat and becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Keeping the liquid topped up during the long simmer. Slow boiling for two hours can evaporate the liquid, and if the pan runs dry the meat can scorch and toughen. Adding water as needed keeps the meat moist and the gravy available.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, pork):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, pork. 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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