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Smothered Beefsteak

Thin slices of beef rolled with bread crumbs, herbs, and butter, then browned and stewed in water with optional onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Smothered Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roll

  1. Lay the meat out smoothly and wipe it dry.

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, butter, sage, summer savory, and enough milk to form a stiff mixture.

  3. Spread the mixture over the meat.

  4. Roll the meat up carefully.

  5. Tie the roll with string, securing the ends well.

Brown and stew

  1. Fry the salt pork slices in a kettle or saucepan until crispy.

  2. Place the beef roll in the rendered fat and brown it on all sides.

  3. Add the water and stew until the meat is tender.

  4. If desired, chop a slice of onion finely.

  5. Add the chopped onion to the dressing.

  6. Once cooked, remove the meat.

  7. Thicken the gravy.

  8. Pour the gravy over the beef.

Serve

  1. Carve the beef crosswise into slices.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the wrapped outer layer that becomes tender during slow stewing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb milk and butter to form a stiff dressing that holds the filling in place.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and helps flavour the filling.
Salt pork
Renders fat for browning the beef and adds savory flavour to the gravy.
Milk
Moistens the bread crumbs so the dressing becomes a stiff, spreadable mixture.

The step that matters

Brown the beef roll on all sides. Browning in the rendered pork fat builds flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat tastes flatter, and the browned surface also flavours the gravy made from the pan.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Summer savorythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, butter, sage, milk, 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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