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Beef Steaks

Beef steaks grilled over hot coals with onion, salt, boiling water, mushroom ketchup, and horseradish garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Beef Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into steaks that are ½ inch thick.

  2. Heat the steaks slightly.

  3. Grease the gridiron bars with a cloth dipped in lard.

  4. Place the gridiron over hot coals.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the steaks quickly, turning them frequently.

  2. Prepare a hot dish with slices of onion.

  3. Lay the steaks in the dish and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  4. Pour the boiling water and mushroom ketchup over the steaks.

  5. Garnish with scraped horseradish and cover with a hot dish cover.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Ketchup + horseradishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
The main protein; broiling browns its surface while the inside stays tender.
Lard
Greases the gridiron so the steaks do not stick and get a clean sear.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury, umami depth to the boiling liquid poured over the steaks.
Onion
Lies under the steaks in the hot dish, adding aroma and mild sweetness as it softens.

The step that matters

Broil the steaks quickly, turning them frequently. Frequent turning over hot coals helps the steaks cook evenly and brown without the outside burning before the centre is done. Staying attentive prevents a charred exterior and a raw interior.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, mushroom, ketchup. 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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