Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Beefsteak and Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the steak as usual.
Cook and serve
Slice and fry the onions in beef drippings or butter until brown.
Place the steak on a dish and layer the fried onions thickly over it.
Cover and let it stand for five minutes before serving hot.
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.
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Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 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
- Beefsteak
- Forms the main body of the dish and carries the onion topping.
- Onions
- Fried until brown, they add sweetness and savoury browned flavour over the steak.
- Beef drippings or butter
- Fat for frying the onions, conducting heat and carrying flavour into them as they brown.
The step that matters
Frying the onions until brown. Onions need enough heat and time to caramelise; pale, under-browned onions stay sharp and raw-tasting, while properly browned ones become sweet and deeply flavoured.
“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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