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Spanish Steak

A thick round steak cooked with onions, tomatoes, cheese, and butter, finished in a hot oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Steak

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Sear and season

  1. Sear the round steak on both sides in a hot pan.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and a bit of butter.

Bake

  1. Add ½ cup of water or stock and cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Cover the steak with slices of raw onion, add a few more pieces of butter, and cook for another 30 minutes.

  3. Add a layer of sliced tomato and cook for another 30 minutes.

Top and serve

  1. Top with grated cheese and cook until brown.

  2. Serve with gravy made from the pan juices.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 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

Round steak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender with slow moist heat.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the surface brown.
Water or stock
Provides moisture that keeps the steak from drying out in the oven and forms the pan juices.
Raw onion
Adds sharp aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks under the steak.
Tomato
Adds acidity and moisture that brighten the rich meat.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Sear the steak on both sides in a hot pan. High heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, creating deep savory flavor. Searing before the oven builds the flavor base that the pan juices and gravy later depend on.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, tomato, cheese. 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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