Name: Spanish Beefsteak
Ingredients: 1 slice of round steak (1 inch thick); water for basting; sliced onions; sliced tomatoes; 2 tablespoons grated cheese

Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and bake the steak

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the steak in a pie dish and add a little water to baste it.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Baste the steak every 10 minutes during baking.

Add the toppings

Remove the steak and cover it with sliced onions, then bake until the onions are tender.
Top with sliced tomatoes and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
Sprinkle grated cheese on top and return to the oven until melted.

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.

Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,896 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,849 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 base of the dish and becomes tender with long, moist oven cooking.
Sliced onions: Soften during baking, adding sweetness and a mellow savory flavor.
Sliced tomatoes: Release moisture and acidity that flavor the steak and toppings as they bake.
Grated cheese: Melts over the top, adding fat, richness and light browning.