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Stuffed Beefsteak

A steak rolled with a bread, butter, and onion filling, boiled until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Pound the steak and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. Spread the filling made from crumbled bread, butter, onion, salt, and pepper on the steak.

  3. Roll the steak up tightly and tie it securely.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the rolled steak in a pot with boiling water and the lump of butter.

  2. Boil slowly until tender, adding more water if necessary.

  3. Slice and serve cold.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flank or round steak
Forms the outer wrap and provides the meat that becomes tender during slow boiling.
Stale bread
Forms the body of the filling, soaking up juices and keeping the stuffing moist.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling and to the cooking liquid.
Onion
Adds savory flavor to the bread filling as it cooks through.

The step that matters

Roll the steak up tightly and tie it securely. If the roll is loose, the filling can escape and spread into the cooking water. A tight, well-tied roll holds the stuffing in place while the meat cooks slowly and evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, butter, bread. 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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